Fortune Favors Fools
by LAXgirl
Summary: Sequel to "Masters of Their Fate." There is no such thing as happily ever after. Especially when all the forces of the world seem set against you. Fem!DinoTrap COMPLETE!
1. Coming of the Storm

Greetings again! Hope I didn't make anyone wait too long for my promised sequel. Had to move back to the States from Japan with a small stop-over in Europe along the way. But I'm back now, so all's good.

**Fortune Favors Fools**

**Chapter One: The Coming of the Storm**

A long, deep roll of thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance. Giant banks of storm clouds blotted one corner of the night sky an even darker shade of black. The smell of rain hung heavy in air. A hot, humid breeze drifted across the desolate plains of volcanic land and buffeted Dinobot's face. It was the only thing to disturb the otherwise stagnant summer night - the literal calm before the storm. As Dinobot glanced in the direction of the approaching storm front, a jagged bolt of lightning flickered downward and illuminated the entire western horizon and underside of the approaching storm clouds in a brilliant wash of white.

Moving swiftly, the raptor wove her way through jagged outcrops of cooled lava flows deeper into Predacon territory. The tips of her beast-mode's elongated toe claws made harsh scraping sounds against the ground as she navigated the treacherous landscape. It was only when she came within the last half mile or so of her former faction's flagship that she slowed to take cover behind a large protrusion of rock.

"Dinobot, maximize," she whispered. In a flurry of shifting limbs and armored plates she transformed into her bipedal form. Keeping low, she pressed her back against the rocky protrusion and carefully craned forward to sight around the corner. The individual sections of her sword spun in slow, steady circles by her side.

In the distance, the wrecked remains of the Darksyde sat in the middle of a partially active lava flow. The underside of the once fearsome battleship was lit in a demonic orange glow, as if the very fires of the Pit burned beneath it.

Dinobot slowly withdrew back behind the rock face. So far she hadn't come across any perimeter defenses, but she wasn't about to take any chances. Despite all of Megatron's shortcomings, outright stupidity wasn't one of them. He'd make sure all angles of approach to his base were covered either by guard patrols, security cameras, or automated weapons systems. Dinobot had already spotted Quickstrike and Terrorsaur patrolling the eastern and southern borders of the Predacons' territory, and had slipped past both of them without being noticed. She'd seen Waspinator buzzing around the Darksyde's entrance, but other than that from as far as Dinobot could tell the Predacon base was for all intents and purposes deserted. All signs of Megatron and his other underlings - namely Tarantulas and Inferno - were suspiciously absent.

No matter. In fact their absence worked in favor of Dinobot's plans.

Almost subconsciously, the warrioress glanced up towards the overcast night sky. Despite the approaching storm front, she knew somewhere high above the cloud cover a full moon hung low in the sky.

One_ solitary _full moon…

With the destruction of the alien satellite, the primitive planet the Predacon and Maximal forces had crash landed on was orbited now by only one planetary body. This revelation brought into question the validity of Megatron's claim that he had not misled them to the wrong planet.

Dinobot growled low beneath her intakes. If the clues were to be believed, then the entire focus of the Beast Wars was about to change. Whether for good or bad, Dinobot still didn't know. So far none of the other Maximals had given the planet's single moon much notice. Dinobot was no gambler, but if she'd had to she would have bet everything she possessed that the planet's new nightscape had not gone unnoticed by Megatron. If he had, then there was no telling what Megatron's next step would be. She had to know for certain if her suspicions were correct before she could devise any sort of battle plan. And the only way for her to do that was to check the one source of information whose theft had sparked the entire Beast Wars in the first place.

Keeping low, Dinobot carefully slunk out from behind her cover and continued her strategic advance on the Predacon warship. A hundred yards from the ship's main lift Dinobot spotted several gun turrets posted at overlapping vantage points around the perimeter. For a moment Dinobot balked. Before she'd defected from the Predacons one of her many duties as Megatron's lieutenant had been security detail. She's chosen this particular weapons system herself. The guns were motion and heat-activated and designed to fire several hundred rounds of armor-piercing bullets in sweeping sprays in under half a minute. The chances of escaping fire once one was caught in the gun's targeting system were minimal. It was one of the main reasons she'd chosen it. Now she began to regret her overenthusiastic choice.

There was one flaw she'd discovered about the weapons system, however. While the guns automatically targeted any large moving heat sources, the guns continually swiveled from side to side on rotating bases; and if the guns' sensors were not actually turned in an approaching enemy's direction they failed to register the encroaching threat. It was a flaw that at the time had troubled Dinobot, but one which she was more than happy to take advantage of now that she was on the opposite side of the gun barrel.

Quickly looking around, the Dinobot spotted what she needed: a shallow puddle of mud. While many of her Maximal comrades would have physically shuddered at the idea, the warrioress did not even hesitate as she began to liberally smear the viscous black sludge across her superstructure. The mud was cool and wet: perfect for masking an intruder's heat signal and making her virtually invisible to the gun's sensors.

It took little effort for Dinobot to systematically creep closer and closer each time the gun swiveled away from her on its turret while freezing in place every time its slowly swept back in her direction. Only when she'd dispatched of one of the turrets with a single thrust of her sword into its control box did Dinobot wipe the excess mud from her face, arms and chest. Thunder rumbled somewhere behind her on the horizon.

Continuing a cautious approach, Dinobot met no other forms of defense until she's already crept up the ship's main lift and into one of the corridors she knew led to the ship's command deck. It was there that she heard the approaching drone of insect wings and unintelligible self-mumbling of her former faction's most inept member, Waspinator.

Dinobot couldn't quite keep a grin from her facial plates as the insipid buzzing grew louder and the wasp unknowingly sped straight towards her down the hall. If a faulty weapons system and Waspinator were all Megatron had left behind to guard his flagship, her mission was going to be easier than she'd initially anticipated.

Pressing herself into the shadowy space between two large heating ducts on the one side of the corridor, Dinobot waited until Waspinator had almost passed her before pouncing from her hiding spot onto the unsuspecting bug. Her claws easily found their way around the flier's skinny beast-mode neck and slammed him backwards against the opposite side of the corridor. The tip of her sword was instantly pressed to the underside of his mandibles.

Waspinator gave a shrill, audio-piercing shriek at the sight of the warrioress, making Dinobot involuntarily wince. "Don't cut off Waspinator's head!" the flier squealed in open terror. "Waspinator still remembers how much it hurt last time lizard-bot attacked him! What did Waspinator do? Waspinator did nothing to lizard-bot. He hasn't said anything mean about lizard-bot except that one time."

"Shut up," Dinobot hissed. Waspinator instantly froze and stared up at her in terrified silence. Dinobot could feel the smaller Predacon literally trembling in her grip. She inwardly smirked. Fear always made interrogations easier…

"You've seen the moon?" she asked without preamble.

Waspinator hastily nodded. "Only one moon now. Other one disappeared after alien attack. Now moon just like picture on gold disk."

Dinobot's lips pressed into a thin line. "Has Megatron noticed?" she demanded.

Waspinator hesitantly nodded again.

"So then Megatron did not lead us astray after all," Dinobot thoughtfully murmured. "That means…"

"Earth," Waspinator replied with a trembling nod.

Dinobot's frown deepened. It was as she'd thought. This changed everything. This could spell either death and destruction or unimaginable glory to whomever used this information to their advantage first. She had to act quickly…

"Where does Megatron keep the disks?" she growled into Waspinator's terror-stricken face.

"H-his rooms," Waspinator stammered. "He doesn't let anyone see them, not even Waspinator! Keeps backup files on them triple encoded."

"I see," Dinobot nodded. "I would have expected nothing less than that from him. Especially when the objects in question possess such intrinsic value. Although I am more than certain such measures will ultimately prove useless in stopping me from claiming them as my own."

Waspinator hesitantly met Dinobot's optics, his papery wings fluttering nervously against the wall. "What is lizard-bot going to do with Waspinator now? He told her everything she wanted to know. Is lizard-bot going to cut his head off again?"

"No," Dinobot replied.

Visible relief washed over Waspinator's facial plates. He sagged against the wall behind him.

"I'm just going to knock it off with my bare fist."

The words barely had time to register in the flier's processor before Dinobot's knuckles smashed into the side of his helm and sent his head spinning in circles on his shoulders several times. Waspinator's optics blinked offline and his body clattered lifelessly to the floor at Dinobot's feet. His head finally stopped spinning with his face turned backwards over his wings.

The warrioress didn't even spare Waspinator a second glance as she stepped over his crumpled body and proceeded deeper into the ship. Allowing old memories of her time on the Darksyde to guide her, she quickly navigated her way through the twisting hallways to the crew's personal quarters. Although she'd never been inside she knew exactly which ones they were Megatron's. If the extra wide, double-reinforced steel doors weren't a dead give-away, the extra security locks lining its one side should have been.

_Rarely do the dreams of sleeping tyrants stray towards peaceful gardens or heavenly delights, _Dinobot darkly mused. _For he who rules by fear is continually roused from his slumber by the chill of Paranoia's cold presence standing over his bedside in the night…_

Despite the extra locks and required key codes Megatron had installed, they gave only minor resistance to the warrioress's amateur hacking skills (not to mention the sharpened edge of her sword and three quick blasts of her optic lasers at close-range to their internal circuitry.) When the doors - now charred black in several areas and locks hanging from their hinges - finally slid aside to reveal the inner sanctums of Megatron's room Dinobot instantly spotted what she'd come there for.

Suspended in a zero-gravity field in the very center of Megatron's rooms two large golden disks slowly rotated end over end in an endless dance of weightlessness. Unintelligible alien hieroglyphs and pictures decorated both sides of each disk.

Dinobot wasted no time in covering the distance between herself and them and snatching the two disks from their floating display. Tucking them both under one arm, the warrioress turned back to the door. There was no saying when Megatron or any of his other cronies were going to return, nor any guarantee Waspinator wouldn't suddenly come back online and raise the alarm. She wanted to be far outside of Predacon territory before either of those things happened.

But not before she made sure there was no way for Megatron to somehow compensate for the loss of the two disks…

To her left sat Megatron's personal computer terminal. With ice-cold precision, the warrioress activated the laser nodes in her optics and sent half a dozen blasts of concentrated green energy flying towards it. The terminal burst into flames. Circuits crackled and motherboards snapped in half under the intense heat. It was only as tongues of flames began to lick the underside of the ceiling did Dinobot finally cease her assault.

There was no way _any _kind of backup files would be salvageable now…

Mission now complete, Dinobot turned to leave. With both gold disks held tight against her side, the Maximal warrior backtracked the same route she'd taken inside. She found Waspinator still laying in a motionless pile exactly where she'd left him. A sharp wind had begun to blow by the time she jogged down the Darksyde's main lift and out into the night. A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky directly over the mountain chain only several miles to the west. A ground-shaking boom of thunder followed closely on its heels.

The storm was almost upon them.

Wasting no time, Dinobot converted to beast-mode and took off in the direction she'd originally come. If she hurried, she might still be able to make it back to base before the storm hit and unleashed its full fury on the earth.

After she made a small side-trip to a secretive spot in the hills just south of the Maximals' territory, that was…

These disks could very well spell the fate of not only herself but countless others spread out between several different galaxies and countless generations. But whether the history that had already happened and been recorded was immutable or still subject to the consequences of their present choices and actions was still the question.

So until she knew for sure, she would hide these disks away from both sides - both Maximals and Predacons alike - and wait to see what course of action would provide her with the best outcome…

* * *

"Looks like this storm's going to be a big one," Rhinox murmured as his optics slowly scanned the screen's readouts. "Better batten down the hatches."

Optimus Primal looked over Rhinox's shoulder and inwardly frowned. From what he could tell, Rhinox was right. According to the Axalon's long-range sensors, they were all in store for a massive electrical storm approaching from the west. "Looks like you're right," Optimus murmured. "I'm a bit worried about Airazor and Tigatron. They're still out scouting sector delta-five for any energon readings. There's not many places in that area for them to take shelter if the storm hits unexpectedly."

"Eh, I wouldn' spend too much time worryin' 'bout ol' Stripes an' da bird-lady," another voice piped up from the opposite side of the Axalon's bridge. "Dey both know wha' they're doin'. Dey know how ta take care 'ov themselves in da field."

Optimus turned and threw Rattrap an exasperated look. "Even the best trained scouts can be overtaken by the elements of an alien planet, Rattrap," he sighed. "It's my responsibility to look after the welfare of my crew both on and off the ship."

Lounging in his seat at another computer consol, the spy carelessly shrugged his shoulders. Rattrap didn't even try to hide the fact that he was playing one of his games by minimizing it to the bottom of the screen when he should have otherwise been doing monitor duty. "Wha'eva ya say, boss monkey," he said. "All's I'm sayin' is dat after spendin' so much time on dis dirt ball planet we've pretty much gotten used ta whatever it can throw at us."

"We've only been on this planet for little more than a stellar cycle," Optimus replied. "That's not enough time to say we've experienced all the different climate changes that are possible. We still have to be on our guard."

But Rattrap was no longer listening. He'd already turned back to his game.

Optimus heaved a frustrated sigh. It was times like these he wondered what he'd been thinking when he'd agreed to captain the Axalon's crew. Since crash landing on this alien planet he and his ragtag crew had come together to form a team that, on occasion, even felt like some kind of dysfunctional family unit. But sometimes, just like in a real family, Optimus felt as though he was being driven to the very brink of sanity by those he'd been entrusted to protect. Primus give him the strength to see them through this war and get them all safely back to Cybertron…

"Hey, Optimus," Cheetor called from another monitor. "I got a heat signature coming towards the ship fast from the south."

Rhinox and Optimus both turned to the nearest screen as the engineer pulled up footage from the outer perimeter's security cameras. "Looks like Dinobot," Optimus said. "Have Sentinal stand down so she doesn't have to stop and wait for it to recognize her." Out of the corner of his optic, he didn't miss the way Rattrap perked up in his seat at the warrioress's name.

"So Scalebelly's finally back," he said, closing down his game. He leaned back in his chair and glanced towards the nearest lift. "Been wonderin' where she's been all day. She's lucky she got back when she did, 'cause it looks like she jus' beat da storm."

Optimus had to inwardly smirk at Rattrap's poor attempt at looking casual. It was pretty much an open secret he and Dinobot were romantically involved. How serious their relationship was, Optimus couldn't really say for sure given how the two of them had never actually come out and publicly acknowledged it to anyone else. But he wasn't the only one who had noticed the way Dinobot and Rattrap's bickering was no longer malicious or tinged with misguided hate. Or how their insulting titles for each other had lost their sting and become more like backhanded terms of endearment. Not to mention on several different occasions now since Dinobot's rescue he'd heard one of them quietly sneaking past his quarters late at night down the hall to the others' room.

To say that Dinobot and Rattrap were like two little lovebirds, however, was so far from the truth the notion was almost funny. The mental image of the fierce warrioress and spy secretly whispering sweet words of affection to each other and holding each other's hand in the moonlight was enough to almost make Optimus burst out laughing. Despite whatever kind of relationship the two of them had developed since Dinobot's rescue from Megatron almost a lunar cycle ago, Rattrap and Dinobot were still the same two antagonistic, short-tempered, frustratingly annoying 'bots they'd been before.

At first Optimus hadn't been quite sure what to make of their relationship. But after thinking about it for awhile, it began to make sense in an odd sort of way. Dinobot and Rattrap were both hard-headed and stubborn and enjoyed taxing each other's patience 'til they found just the right button to push to get the reaction they wanted. Despite all their differences - or perhaps because of them - they complimented each other perfectly. Whatever one lacked, the other made up for in abundance. Wherever one faltered, the other was always somewhere nearby to equal out the imbalance. Working together, they made an efficient team (even though there was still a fair amount of name-calling and sharp-tongued insults being thrown around between them.) In truth, Optimus had more than once wondered if Dinobot and Rattrap's arguments and occasional threats of violence weren't really some sort of verbal foreplay.

But that was a line of code he really didn't want to process in any way, shape or form; and so wiped it from his neural circuits as quickly as possible…

The hum of the lift's hydraulics activating sounded from the other side of the bridge, and Dinobot slowly rose into view.

"Looks like you just made it back in time," Cheetor cheerfully called as the warrioress, still in beast-mode, unfolded herself from the narrow lift. "Rhinox says we're going to be in for one heck of a storm tonight."

"I am more than well aware of it," Dinobot snorted. With a quick command she transformed to robot-mode. Glancing in Optimus's direction, she said, "I observed the approaching storm front while I was returning from patrol. I counted at least six massive lightening strikes half a dozen miles west of us. We should increase the ship's shield output to at least sixty-five percent to reduce chances of any our equipment being damaged by an electrical surge. One hit could take out Sentinal and our entire security network."

"Good idea," Optimus nodded. If there was one thing he could say about Dinobot it was that she was dedicated, especially when it came to security and base defenses. On more than one occasion she'd proven herself an indispensable asset to the Maximals. If it hadn't been for her in their first real clash with Megatron after crash landing, Optimus was almost certain the outcome of that fight would have been very different.

"Any sign of Predacon activity while you were out?" he asked as Rhinox increased the ship's shields without him even having to order it.

Dinobot shook her head with a scowl. "Negative. While patrolling the eastern border I detected several Predacon signatures doing basic patrols, but nothing more."

Optimus nodded, his troubled expression mirroring Dinobot's own. For the last several weeks ever since Dinobot's rescue, they'd detected little movement from the Predacons. Despite the nice respite from fighting considering the commotion Dinobot's kidnapping had caused, such prolonged silence from Megatron was a troubling sign. Optimus tried to tell himself the warlord was just licking his wounds from such a humiliating defeat, but his instincts told him otherwise. There was no doubt in his processor that Megatron was concocting some new plot to use against them. And not knowing what this unnamed threat might be made Optimus's intake tank churn uncomfortably.

They'd just have to be careful for the unforeseeable future until they figured out what Megatron was planning…

"Well, it's good ta see ya were doin' at least _somethin_' useful while you were AWOL all day," Rattrap piped up from across the bridge.

Optimus inwardly sighed. There just couldn't be _one_ peaceful moment on this ship, could there?

Just as expected, Dinobot instantly turned to glare at the spy. "Unlike you, Vermin, I prefer to go where my warrior skills might be of some use to this crew instead of sitting comfortably onboard all day playing computer games."

Rattrap leaned back in his chair with a smirk, openly enjoying Dinobot's annoyed expression. "So says you, Bronto-breath. Who knows wha' ya could be doin' out der all day with no one watchin' ta make sure yer not plannin' somthin' underhanded."

Dinobot growled low under her intakes. "You should be less concerned about what I do off this ship than what I am capable of doing _on_-ship right under your pointy little nose," she replied with a menacing glare.

"Dat a threat, Lizard Lips?" Rattrap said, arching one optic ridge at her.

"No, Vermin," Dinobot hissed. "It is a promise sworn on my very honor."

Unlike Optimus, Rhinox and Cheetor had long since turned back to their workstations. After more than a year of listening to Dinobot and Rattrap's bickering, it had become almost second nature to the crew to tune out their arguing and go on about their duties as if it was nothing more than background noise.

"Now if you are finished wasting valuable time at that computer terminal I want to use it to log my report," Dinobot growled as she stalked towards Rattrap and gave him a none too gentle shove out of the way. Rattrap's chair flew backwards in its runners and spun around in several circles.

"Watch'it, Scalebelly, or I'll put a round right between yer ugly optics!" Rattrap snapped, leaping to his feet to face Dinobot.

"With your aim?" Dinobot gave a condescending snort. "That would be highly unlikely." Then, turning her back on him, the raptor bent at the waist over the keypad and began to furiously type.

Rattrap stood staring at Dinobot's back, his optic ridges scrunched together in the center of his face. For a moment Optimus was sure Rattrap was going to fire back with another insult. The spy continued to stiffly glare at the warrioress as though trying to think of a suitable comeback. But then, as if deciding against it, the tension in Rattrap's shoulder relaxed and he turned towards the nearest exit.

Optimus was just about to send a silent prayer of thanks to Primus for being spared one of their more volatile arguments and go back to the three-dimensional holo-map he'd been studying before Dinobot's return, when out of the corner of his optic he caught Rattrap shoot one servo out towards Dinobot as he strode past and smoothly run his palm along the lower curve of the warrioress's aft.

The touch was quick and over before Optimus could even process what he thought he'd just seen. The only thing to prove he hadn't been hallucinating was Dinobot lifting her head to glance in the direction of Rattrap's retreating back. But instead of curses, battle cries or promises of bloody retribution as Optimus might have expected, Dinobot remained surprisingly calm and quiet - her expression edged with only a mild look of annoyance. Then, as if nothing had happened at all, the raptor turned her attention back to the computer screen and continued typing.

Optimus quickly turned back to his holo-map before Dinobot or anyone else could see him staring. He could feel his facial plates grow hot with an embarrassed rush of mech fluid.

Oh, yes. There was definitely something going on between those two. And nothing of the platonic type either. He'd suspected it for some time now ever since Dinobot's rescue. But somehow seeing his suspicions proven right - and in such an open, non-uncertain way - was an entirely different matter. And one in which he felt the less he chose to know, the better it was for his and everyone else's good…

* * *

Thunder cracked overhead, its boom literally shaking the ground underfoot. Lightning flashed and illuminated the barren landscape of jagged cliffs and slick-sided gorges in a blinding wash of light. A strong wind - a mere herald of the tempest that was about to unleash its fury on the land - whistled through the narrow canyons and sent dirt and small pieces of rock scuttling across the ground. The smell of rain was heavy in the air - sharp, clean and cold.

_It is a fitting setting, _Megatron grinned as he craned his optics upward and watched a jagged fork of lightning slice across the sky. Thunder rumbled almost immediately in its wake, like the hungry stomach-growl of some titanic demon-entity.

"My Queen!" Inferno's voice called over the building howl of wind. "The storm is almost directly overhead."

"Excellent," Megatron grinned and turned away from the broiling black storm clouds towards the gigantic metal structure he and his servants, Inferno and Tarantulas, had constructed high in the desolate mountain region just north of the Predacons' border. He'd chosen the area mostly because it was so far outside of the Maximals' long-range sensors. The jamming tower he'd had installed on the far edge of their territory helped, but he wasn't about to take any chances with Optimus Primal and his ragtag crew anymore. He wanted no interruptions to what he was about to do…

"Is the machine ready?" he demanded as he strode up to Tarantulas at the base of the structure. The scientist was currently engrossed in inputting numerous codes into the structure's main computer.

"Almost, Megatron," he nodded without even looking away from the screen. "I'm just working out the last few transmetal gene sequence codes. It should be ready within the minute."

"Hurry," the warlord growled. "We cannot afford to let this storm pass us over. We do not have the generators needed to produce the energy necessary to complete the process, and there's no saying when another electrical storm of this magnitude will come again."

"I'm working as fast as I can," Tarantulas muttered between gritted mandibles. The mad scientist's pinchers flew across the keyboard. Cybertronian symbols and schematics flashed across the screen so fast Megatron did not even attempt to decipher them. That was why he'd brought Tarantulas along to worry about them anyway…

Almost directly overhead another crash of thunder sounded. The storm was upon them. They had to hurry.

"Inferno!" Megatron yelled over the wind. "Bring the stasis pod. Quickly!"

"Yes, my Queen!" Inferno saluted and hurried off to the side where an unactivated stasis pod lay. Megatron watched as the fire ant dragged the pod towards the structure and up the long ramp that led to its power couplings.

"Careful," he barked as Inferno hefted the pod upright and began to connect it to the structure. Through the small window in the front, the silvery protoform inside limply bounced from side to side. "If anything happens to that protoform, it will be your life."

"I will not fail you, my Queen!" Inferno cried over his shoulder as he hurriedly connected the last few cables and wires to the pod.

Despite his servant's assurance, Megatron continued to closely watch him until the fire ant finally stepped away from the pod and came back down the structure's ramp.

Inferno stepped to attention in front of Megatron and snapped off a smart salute. "It is done, my liege!"

Megatron spared Inferno only a half-sparked nod of approval. His attention was wholly focused on the pod. Inside that pod lay the future of all his recent plans. His redemption. His _prize._

Even now almost a month after Dinobot's escape, Megatron still seethed with memories of his defeat. He'd been so close. He'd all but had his ex-lieutenant completely back under his control. But then Optimus Primal and that annoying little rat had shown up with the rest of Dinobot's adopted crew. If it hadn't been for that conniving black widow, Blackarachnia, and that soft-sparked excuse of a Predacon recruit, Silverbolt, he would have defeated the Maximals and already had Dinobot fully bonded to him as his own personal warrior and pet. Of that he had no doubt. But both had betrayed him and helped his drugged ex-lieutenant escape.

Megatron grit his dentals in lingering rage. Not only had he lost to Primal and his meddling Maximals, but worse he'd ultimately lost to the smallest member of that pitiful crew. Just the memory of the rat's sticky bomb was enough to make Megatron's circuits burn with hate. Even now several weeks later and no less than four days spent in a CR tank, he still got occasional stabs of phantom pain through his right arm's neural lines where the bomb had stuck to his superstructure. He was going to take nothing but the greatest pleasure in one day stripping that tiny, foul-mouthed rodent apart piece by piece until he was nothing more than a heap of rusting scrap metal. And not just for the bomb either. That walking piece of plague had also stolen his prize.

Megatron was gritting his dentals so hard he could feel them begin to warp under the pressure.

Dinobot was suppose to have been his! He'd staked his claim on her the instant he saw footage of the warrioress in her true form and realized the potential of having her as his bonded mate. She would have been like an unstoppable weapon: deadly, swift and completely at his - and _only_ his - command. Not to mention the private liberties that usually went on between bonded couples behind closed doors would have been an added bonus. Despite all of Dinobot's less than feminine qualities, there was no denying she possessed a certain element of violent carnal energy he'd never seen in another femme before. She would have fought him every inch of the way - bonded or not! - to his berth and made him earn his gratification.

Oh, he would have made it worth Dinobot's while too. Even he was not that selfish to completely ignore his own sparkmate's needs. A content (though perhaps not necessarily _happy_) soldier was a productive soldier, after all. He could have given Dinobot everything she'd ever strove for on a silver platter: wealth, power, respect. And what had she gone and done with his offer? Spat it back in his face. And for what? A group of sniveling peace-mongers?

If that was what that Maximal-loving traitor wanted, then fine. She'd had her chance. Rejected and snubbed, he'd turned his attention to other ways of getting what he wanted from the warrioress, but without all that troublesome honor and pride getting in the way…

It had seemed almost fated that several days after Megatron had emerged from the CR tank - ego bruised and hatred smoldering - another of the Maximals' stasis pods was knocked out of orbit and sent crashing to earth deep inside Predacon territory. At first the Predacon warlord had been extremely disappointed to learn the pod did not contain an active protoform, but rather one of the Maximals' reserve units which was really nothing more than a sparkless shell. But then he'd realized the potential such a protoform had. Megatron was just glad he'd had the forethought to collect a small sample of Dinobot's DNA not long after he'd subdued the warrioress with Tarantulas's neural serum.

For what better way was there for him to have his warrioress without another confrontation with her overprotective comrades than to just make another, more willing servant himself? He'd already done as much when he'd made a beast-mode clone of Dinobot in order to infiltrate the Maximals' base. That had been a complete failure - mostly because of the clone's inability to transform. But with a sparkless protoform to use as the base for his creation, the possibilities were endless.

The only concern had been creating a viable substitute for a spark. Luckily for Megatron though, he had a skilled scientist on his crew who had no ethical qualms about solving such a problem. Although he hadn't asked Tarantulas too many questions about the procedure just because he knew he wouldn't understand all the technical aspects of the answer, what he had gathered from the spider's scientific rambling was that when all was said and done a spark was really nothing more than a concentrated ball of energy. With the right know-how and lack of ethical government regulations in place to delay them, creating an artificial spark was really not that hard, relatively speaking. For a scientist like Tarantulas, doing such a thing was not much more difficult than creating a clone. And he'd already successfully done that once. The only thing that had delayed Tarantulas from completing his genetic masterpiece was having to wait for a powerful enough electrical storm to power the final step.

Until tonight, that was…

"It is done!" Tarantulas suddenly gave a triumphant shout beside him. "Everything is ready. All that is needed now is one massive surge of energy to activate the cell replicators."

"Raise the pole!" Megatron shouted.

Tarantulas hit a button and a long, slender conducting rod slowly rose over the generator-structure into the night sky.

A bolt of lightning flashed across the sky. Megatron could almost feel the sir crackle with electricity.

He eagerly motioned to Tarantulas. "Activate the transmetal conductor!"

The scientist flipped a large level and the structure began to hum. A plume of tiny sparks exploded from one of the cables connected to the pod. A flickering glow rose up inside the pod to briefly illuminate the sparkless protoform inside before it was lost from view in a halo of blinding white light.

"Ye~eess…" Megatron crooned as a bolt of lightning sliced the air close to the conducting rod. It missed, but another flash shot towards it almost immediately afterwards.

A flurry of rapid beeps sounded from the structure's computer.

Tarantulas spun towards it and began madly punching in complex lines of code. "The power cells are straining to hold the charge, and the lightning hasn't even directly hit it yet. The circuits could overload!"

"Make it hold!" Megatron screamed over the building hum of energy and a deafening crash of thunder overhead. "I will not be defeated. Not here. Not now. Not when I am so close!"

Tarantulas's pinchers furiously pounded at the keyboard. "I'm trying, but the power levels are dangerously close to short circuiting the entire system and the transmetal driver hasn't even been activated yet."

Megatron tore his optics away from the glowing protoform just long enough to shoot Tarantulas a scathing look. The scientist caught the warlord's glare and silently turned back to his computer screens.

Another bolt of lightning cut the air and struck the conducting rod.

The power readings on the computer spiked. The rapid beeps of it's warning system had become an almost continuous drone. Spark exploded from numerous points across the giant structure like miniature fireworks, showering the pod in a curtain of fiery light.

"Yes," Megatron crowed. "Ye~eeeesss…"

Above them another bolt of lightning slammed against the pole, sending crackling white wave of electricity racing down its length.

The structure began to violently shake. Thin tendrils of smoke were seeping from the corners of a service panel on the generator's far side. Numerous warning boxes flashed across the computer screen.

"It's going to overload!" Tarantulas yelled.

"Royalty," Inferno said, worriedly stepping closer to Megatron. "We should move back. If it should explode-"

"It won't," Megatron snapped and shoved Inferno away from him. His optics could see nothing but the light-encased pod. "I will not be denied my prize again…"

A dangerous sounding hum was coming from the generator, slowly building in pitch. There was a sudden _pop_ from deep inside the computer's housing box and small spray of sparks exploded from the keyboard.

Tarantulas had begun to slowly back away from the smoking consol. "It's not going to hold anymore!"

"Royalty!" Inferno plaintively beseeched.

"No!" Megatron growled, taking a step towards the shaking, glowing pod. "I will not admit defeat now!"

The hum continued to build until it seemed to literally vibrate the air. Lightning flashed overhead. Wind howled.

"Yes! Let this tempest be the setting of your unholy birth," Megatron called over the crashing boom of thunder. "Let its fury greet you as you emerge as the symbol of my impending reign. Come! Emerge and meet your master!"

There was deafening crash of thunder overhead. As another flash of lightning illuminated the area in a brilliant flash of white, there came a muffled thump from inside the pod. Another bump followed closely in its wake. And just as the generator's grating hum crested and a series of small fires erupted at different points across the generator's front and the blinding light of the pod exploded in a sharp flash, the door of the pod flew open and cracked against the adjacent side of the structure.

A clawed hand slowly appeared and wrapped itself around the edge of the pod. Another hand appeared on the other side. And as Megatron watched in awed silence a figure emerged from the pod - its body framed in a final shower of sparks from the now silent, smoking remains of the structure. For a moment the Predacon warlord could only stare, drinking in the sight of his creation.

Tall and built just as solid as her original counterpart, the clone of Dinobot was a thing of savage beauty. While Dinobot's armor had had layers of artificial raptor-striped organic skin, this cloned femme was all shiny off-white transmetal armor. Darker in color than her original, the femme's single red optic seemed to glow even brighter than normal from against the backdrop of her charcoal-grey face. Her left optic was monocled with what looked like an external laser fixture. A transmetal tail agitatedly lashed the air behind her. But the one feature that stood out the most to warlord was not the clone's different coloring or new appendages, but rather the sets of eighteen inch blades on either of the femme's reformatted hands that seemed to have taken the place of any other kind of discernable fingers.

"Beautiful…" Megatron murmured as he took several measured steps towards the transmetal femme.

The clone looked up at his approach. Megatron could almost see the femme searching the uploaded information of her memory banks before a look of recognition settled over her harsh features.

"Lord Megatron," she greeted, bowing her head to him as he came to a stop in front of her. Her voice reverberated through the warlord's audios like the whisper of a blade slicing the air: cold and self-possessed in its deadliness.

Megatron was unable to keep the satisfied grin from his facial plates. He slowly reached out and ran one finger along the flat of one of the clone's finger blades. "What impressive talons you have," he noted with a grin.

"They are yours to command as you please, my lord," she replied. The corners of her lips pulled back in a vicious smirk to reveal two rows of sharpened dentals.

Megatron nodded, pleased beyond words for the success which he'd achieved. "Then that is what I shall name you: Talon. For I will not have you share the same name as that Maximal-loving traitor."

"As you wish, my lord," Talon bowed.

Megatron grinned. Above them the clouds continued to broil and writhe and finally released their hidden stores of water. Rain pounded the ground as lightning and thunder cracked above. It seemed fitting somehow to the warlord as he watched the storm break loose around him and his newest loyal servant. Because with this violent deluge he swore he could feel the tides of power slowly shifting in his favor…

Please be so kind to leave me a review if you'd like to see me continue this!


	2. Dangerous Plans

**Chapter Two: Dangerous Plans**

It was the sharp dip of the berthmat and sudden absence of his bedmate's warmth against him that startled Rattrap out of a deep recharge back to consciousness.

"Huh? Wha-?" he mumbled, optics groggily flickering online. He blindly groped in the darkness for the shifting body beside him and coiled his arm around his partner's waist to pull himself closer to her side - one leg thrown over Dinobot's own and his helm nestled in the hollow of her shoulder.

"Where ya goin'?" he mumbled into her shoulder guard. His voice was thick and near unintelligible with sleep.

"Release me, vermin," Dinobot growled close beside his audio. She tried to pry herself loose from him, but the spy just held on tighter. "It is less than two hours from dawn. I must leave before any of the other crewmembers wake for morning duties."

Rattrap lifted his head just high enough from it place on Dinobot's chest to see the digital time display beside his berth. The glowing red Cybertronian symbols read a list of numbers Rattrap was still too groggy to fully comprehend, but was awake enough to know that that particular order of symbols was one he rarely ever saw because it was so Primus-forsaken early.

The spy gave a disgusted groan and let his head drop heavily back down onto Dinobot's shoulder. "Ya've gotta be kiddin' me… It's too early ta even _think_ about bein' up yet."

Dinobot gave a condescending snort, still trying to sit up despite the smaller Maximal latched to her side. The only thing working in Rattrap's favor for keeping Dinobot close was the fact that the night before they'd fallen into recharge with Dinobot on the inside of the berth closer to the wall and Rattrap on the outside. But even then, their current position did little to dissuade the determined femme.

"You might not think anything of it," she growled, "but I do not want everyone else on this crew to know of our encounters. If they were to know I share a berth with you on an almost nightly basis, I just might offline from embarrassment."

It was still much too early for Rattrap's liking for Dinobot to be using such long sentences, and responded by snuggling closer to her with a tired groan.

"Vermin, I will not express my wishes again. Release me now! Or I will be forced to resort to physical violence."

"Oh, com'mon, Choppa'face," he sighed. "It's not like everyone doesn' already suspect somethin's goin' on between us."

"No thanks to you and your wandering servos in every public area on this ship," Dinobot growled.

Rattrap grinned against Dinobot's shoulder. "Eh, wha can I say? Yer aft is a thing o' beauty. It's not my fault it's da sort of art dat needs ta be touched ta be fully appreciated."

Rattrap felt more than heard Dinobot's annoyed growl rumble beneath his head. "Despite whatever perverse obsessions you have for my frame, you would do well to restrain yourself from indulging in them whist in the midst of our comrades. I am not your plaything to be pet and fondled anytime you please."

"Ok, ok…" Rattrap mumbled before the warrioress could work herself into a full blown rant. Despite his enjoyment of seeing Dinobot lose her temper, it was still way too early in the morning to get into one of their arguments. "No more 'indulgin'' in front ov' anyone else… Got it. I'll just wait 'til I get ya back ta one ov' our rooms ta do any kind of _indulgin.'_" Lifting his head from Dinobot's chest he waggled one optic ridge suggestively up at her.

Dinobot's response was an annoyed sneer.

"Yet again, rodent, you demonstrate the very reason for which I do not want anyone else to know of our relationship."

Chuckling under his vents, Rattrap once again made himself comfortable against Dinobot's side. With his one hand he'd thrown across Dinobot's waist he began to gently stroke the side of her hip with his thumb. Despite the warrioress's normal aversion to physical contact, she never protested these small touches when they lay beside each other on the berth like they were now. It was as if she truly enjoyed these fleeting moments of quiet contact but was too proud to actually admit it.

As if in confirmation of Rattrap's suspicions, Dinobot settled back against the padding with a disgruntled huff, no longer trying to actively escape his hold. "I really should leave," she murmured. Rattrap chose not to point out what they both knew: that if she really did want to leave, there was very little he could do to actually stop her. He'd just come to accept this as Dinobot's way of conceding to him while still saving face.

"Why?" Rattrap demanded, his optic shuttered tiredly. "Where d'yu haf ta be so Primus-forsaken early dis mornin'?"

"Not me. _You_," Dinobot clarified. "Or did you already forget that you are scheduled for the first shift of monitor duty this morning?"

Rattrap groaned loudly and buried his face into Dinobot's breast plate as if trying to somehow hide from his fate. "Dat's today?" he whined. "Why's it got ta be _me _dat has ta do monitor duty so fraggin' early? Optimus _knows_ I hate early mornin' monitor duty."

"Because it is not fair for the other members of this crew to have to do so while you do not," was Dinobot's sharp reply. "You are lucky Optimus gives you so few early shifts as he does. Why are you complaining anyway? You do nothing but play games the entire time when you should otherwise be keeping watch for enemy attacks."

Rattrap snorted. "Listen, if Megs an' his goons are actually up at dis time ov' da mornin' tryin' ta attack us, den dey deserve ta get past our defenses. No sane 'bot would ever even _consider_ bein' up dis early willingly…"

Dinobot did not reply to this and the two lapsed into silence.

Listening to the gentle purr of Dinobot's engine beneath his audio, Rattrap was lulled back into a drowsy state of half-awareness. It was funny, the spy mused. Little less than a month ago if anyone had told him he'd one day be lounging in his berth with _Dinobot_ of all femmes beside him - both sin chest plates and covered in each other's scent and bite marks after an intense night plugged into each other - Rattrap would have outright laughed in their face. Or pulled a gun on them for ever even _joking _he was somehow attracted to the scaly ex-Predacon. (Although he'd never know for sure, Rattrap suspected the latter would have been the more probable reaction of the two…)

In any case, laying there comfortably pressed to the raptor's side listening to the quiet pulse of her spark Rattrap could not deny he felt truly… content for once in his life.

Before now he'd never really been in a real relationship, or even desired to have one. All his previous encounters had been mostly one night stands or extremely casual friends-with-benefits type deals. And even then the term 'friend' was being used very loosely to be able to conform to the parameters of some kind of definition. He was not what most would consider "partner material." And he was fine with that. He'd come to accept that a long time ago. In fact he'd used that to his advantage for several decades as an excuse to scout a larger pool of potential berth partners without having the worry of being expected to eventually settle for only one.

No, it was safe to say Rattrap had never been in any sort of serious relationship before. But with Dinobot there was an element to their interactions he'd never had with another 'bot. There was an element of ease and comfort he'd never felt before. He never felt like he had to act or try to be anyone else but himself when around Dinobot because he knew she would never change herself to fit someone else's ideals of what she should be, and did not expect him to do so either. Despite all their difference - the extreme opposites of their personalities, backgrounds and outlooks on life - that was their meeting point, their happy middle ground on the spectrum of all the things that separated them.

That wasn't to say Rattrap could accurately describe his and Dinobot's relationship much beyond that however. Even now, almost a month after their less-than-typical courting phase, there was still much Rattrap didn't know or understand about the surly warrioress. But there were a few things he did know for certain: 1) Dinobot was the only 'bot to date to ever dare go toe-to-toe with him at his own game; 2) she was the most dangerous, hot-tempered strong female he'd ever met; 3) the combination of numbers 1 and 2 made Dinobot undeniably attractive in his eyes; and finally 4) Dinobot was the only 'bot he'd ever shared a berth with for more than three times without wanting to put an end to their nightly encounters.

It had been pointed out to him by Rhinox that he was straying dangerously far from his usual set of behavior. He'd fought harder for Dinobot than he'd ever fought for anything else in his entire function - even going so far as to go head-to-head with the Predacon warlord himself to get her back. He'd forsaken almost all his ingrained codes of self-preservation; and had fallen almost seamlessly into a comfortable routine of alternating between his and Dinobot's quarters each night for their rendezvous.

Although he'd never admit it out loud to anyone (or even to himself in the full light of day), laying there comfortable, content, and half asleep with his helm pillowed against Dinobot's chest Rattrap could at least recognize in the farthest corner of his mind that he was steadily falling a little bit more for the warrioress with each passing day. She never failed to amuse him and never left him wanting more. Nor did she expect anything more from him than what he expected from her -which was to say almost nothing. There was no pressure, no unrealistic overly romanticized expectations of fairytale bliss. There was no sense of need to impress or obligation to go against one's nature to fulfill some idealistic expectation of the other. No demands for commitment. There was only them and… _this._ This undefined understanding they shared. And that was something more than Rattrap could have ever actually asked for.

Together the unlike pair lay for several minutes of silence, the only sound to break it the soft hum of air rattling through the ship's ventilation system. Rattrap was just starting to drop back into recharge when his makeshift pillow sudden rose and fell in a despondent sigh. Jolted back awake by the motion, Rattrap lifted his head just enough to throw Dinobot a disgruntled look. But the sight of the warrioress's face made Rattrap pause. Dinobot was staring up at the ceiling, her optics unfocused and distance. Her lips were curled down in a frown while the rest of her facial plates were twisted in an expression of general worry. It was not a sight he often saw on the warrioress's face. Looking back, he realized Dinobot had seemed somewhat… distracted the night before after returning from patrol.

"Wha's wrong?" Rattrap asked, genuinely concerned.

"I'm fine, vermin," Dinobot said.

"Aw, don' gimme dat slag, Choppa'face. I've known ya long enough ta know when somethin's not right with you. Ya look like someone just bent yer favorite sword."

Another explosive sigh rattled the warrioress's chest, and she tilted her head down to look at him. "I was just contemplating what this recent lack of activity from Megatron could mean. This extended silence is troubling. I fear he is planning something which could prove to be our doom if we do not discover what it is soon."

Rattrap groaned softly to himself. Only Dinobot would think about such things while laying in bed being unwillingly cuddled by her secret lover. Nevertheless, the warrioress's concerns were valid. He'd overheard Optimus and Rhinox discussing pretty much the same thing just the day before.

But for now, it was still too early in the morning for Rattrap to be worried about something that given the current time and setting felt too far removed from him for it to be of any immediate concern.

"If Megs knows wha's good fer him, he won't start up any more trouble wit' us," Rattrap said with a yawn. "Or I'll just hafta go an' shove another bomb where da sun don' shine."

Dinobot snorted and shot him a condescending look. "As if you'd ever actually do so. We both know how much you value your miserable existence."

The spy grinned good-humoredly and shifted so that he could better meet the warrioress's gaze. "A' course I would. Can't have anyone makin' trouble fer my lil' femme now can I? A lady like you's got ta have a big strong mech ta look out fer her."

Dinobot quirked one optic ridge at him before in a single move that was too fast for Rattrap to actually follow, she barrel-rolled in place and flipped the smaller Maximal over onto his back so that their positions were now completely reversed. The air was roughly knocked out of him by the motion. Dinobot's long legs straddled Rattrap's hips, pinning him beneath her. She slowly leaned down and smirked into the spy's face.

"Is that so?" she said. "And what is a big strong mech like you to do when pinned underneath his helpless femme?"

Rattrap grinned saucily up at her. Reaching up, he trailed the tip of one finger down the center of Dinobot's plateless chest to her port and plug. There, he lightly circled her port with his finger. "Oh, I dunno…," he murmured. "Probably just lay back an' enjoy it."

Rattrap felt a near imperceptible shiver run through the warrioress's frame above him. Glancing to the side, Dinobot looked at the digital chronometer beside the bed. "Your shift is to begin in less than one hour," she noted meaningfully.

"Plenty ov' time," Rattrap replied, his finger moving lower to tease the tip of Dinobot's retracted plug. "Plus I'm sure Optimus won' care if I'm just a lil' bit late…"

Dinobot did not verbally reply, but began to draw her plug line from its housing unit beside her spark chamber. She reached down to grab one of Rattrap wrists and pin it down beside his head against the berth. Then with a predatory growl, she leaned down over him and captured his mouth roughly with her own. Rattrap eagerly leaned up off the berth to meet her, their lips and glossa hungrily rolling against each other in a one-sided, pre-determined battle for dominance. As the kiss deepened and they both felt the familiar surge of lust rise in their systems Rattrap was once again reminded why he continued to return to the warrioress night after night…

* * *

Traces of a sated smile were still present on Rattrap's face hours later as he sat in the Axalon's main control room, discreetly playing a computerized gambling game in the lower right corner of his security monitor. The ship was awake and active - all its crewmembers now well immersed in their respected tasks for the day. Only two others shared the bridge with Rattrap: namely Optimus Primal and the newest mech to their group, Silverbolt. Both were studying a holographic topographical map of a desolate area of land just north of the Maximals' territory.

"So you say you detected signs of Predacon activity in this area?" Optimus said as he surveyed the image.

"Yes," Silverbolt nodded. "Quickstrike and Terrorsaur by the looks of it. I spotted them while doing aerial patrol just before the storm hit yesterday. They were both in this area." He pointed to one section of the grid which automatically zoomed in and enlarged. It was a mostly hilly, rocky area of land that at first glance didn't hold obvious strategic advantage or any other notable qualities. "I could not say for certain what they were doing, but I am almost certain they were carrying large pieces of equipment - some of which looked suspiciously like explosives. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any closer to see what that equipment might be without the risk of being spotted. I wanted to return to base as quickly as possible to report my findings before the storm forced me to seek shelter elsewhere."

"No, you did well," Optimus said. "It would not have done any good for you to be detected and caught in a firefight with no one else in the area to give you backup." The Maximal commander stood for a minute grimly staring at the display. "Whatever Megatron has his men doing up there can't be good. Especially when he's been so quiet recently. We'll have to send a team to investigate this."

'Investigate what?" a new voice said from the doorway.

All three mechs looked up as Dinobot ducked through the hatchway onto the bridge. Dinobot pointedly ignored the salacious grin Rattrap shot her as way of greeting and kept her optics firmly trained on their commander. She refused to acknowledge the smaller Maximal while in the midst of the rest of the crew beyond her usual sneers and gibes. Although she was sure many of their comrades already suspected something going on between herself and the spy, she had no desire to confirm them with any kind of overly familiar interactions. If she had it her way, she would never even be in the same room as the vermin while any of their other comrades were present. She didn't need anyone see her fall victim to the spy's scandalous gropes. It would completely tarnish her image if someone were to do so. It was bad enough she could never seem to find the spark to more aggressively dissuade the spy's amorous touches, but even worse that in some small treacherously twisted way she kind of enjoyed them.

_Damn these Maximals and their thrice-damned corrosive influence on my warrior code_, she inwardly snarled.

"Have you discovered some new information?" she asked as she purposely strode up to the table and scanned the holographic image.

"Yes," Optimus nodded. "Silverbolt just informed me of possible Predacon activity in the northern part of sector Gamma-3."

"I spotted Quickstrike and Terrorsaur there yesterday afternoon apparently moving large equipment of some kind," the fuzor explained. "Unfortunately, the storm forced me to return to base without investigating further."

Dinobot felt an unmistakable chill run through her circuits. She did not like the implications of this. It seemed whatever Megatron was planning was already being set into motion...

"Have you tried long range scanners to detect what they are doing?" she asked with a frown.

"We already tried, but the scanners were unable to detect anything unusual," Optimus replied. "It could be residual electricity in the atmosphere from last night's storm that's interfering with the readings, or it could be that whatever the Predacons are building just hasn't been completed yet."

"Or der could be some kind ov' jammin' tower der," Rattrap piped up from the other side of the bridge. The other three thoughtfully glanced in his direction.

"That's also a possibility," Optimus agreed, his facial plates twisting into a troubled expression. "In any case, this needs to be investigated further. Dinobot, I want you to lead the team. I'm going to send Silverbolt and Blackarachnia with you. Tigatron and Airazor are still out scouting, but I will send a message to them to start heading in your direction in case you need any kind of backup."

Dinobot inclined her head to Optimus in a shallow bow. Despite her outwardly emotionless demeanor, the warrioress inwardly burned with anticipation. The promise of command never failed to excite her. It was something she'd always fought hard to obtain, no matter how temporary the position or how small a force she was given to lead. All that mattered was that _she_ was in control and that it was _her_ orders everyone else followed.

"Oh, and…" Optimus startled Dinobot out of her musings. "Take Rattrap with you."

"What? Why?" the spy demanded, abruptly swiveling around in his seat.

Optimus just shot the spy a sly grin. "I think a little time away from the monitors might do you some good. After all, you haven't been able to come anywhere close to beating your current high-score this morning."

Meanwhile, Dinobot's tank dropped slightly. Suddenly she wasn't looking as forward to this mission as she had been…

* * *

"Ugh! How in the name of Primus did I get stuck going on this wild goose chase too?" Blackarachnia groused some time later as the small contingent of Maximals made their way across the quantum surge-scorched land towards sector Gamma. "I was perfectly happy doing system checks back on that broken down wreck you Maximals call a ship."

"Because our commander ordered it and one should not question one's commanding officer," was Dinobot's tight reply. The two femmes walked side by side, both in beast-mode, while Rattrap easily kept pace with them on Dinobot's other side with the help of his new transmetal wheels. Silverbolt banked and circled high above them in the air, his shadow trailing them on the ground like a visible presence.

"Should I take that as some kind of suggestion seeing as how while we're on this little mission _you're _the commanding officer?" Blackarachnia said, shooting Dinobot a pointed look from all three sets of her eyes.

Dinobot met Blackarachnia's gaze with a sharp look of her own. "Yes," she growled.

The black widow looked ready to complain some more, but then seemed to decide that that was more effort than it was worth. "Fine. Whatever," she grumbled, her long legs a flurry of movement as she fought to keep pace with the larger femme's brisk, two-legged stride.

"I would'a thought yeh knew all 'bout how ol' Dino-butt gets off on authority, Eight Legs," Rattrap said from Dinobot's other side. "I kinda thought dat was some kind ov' Predacon prerequisite."

Dinobot glared at him out of the corner of her eye. She had made sure to have a few words with the spy before leaving the Axalon - mostly about him not questioning her orders or mocking her position as commander while on this mission, and about keeping his servos to himself should he not wish to suddenly have them amputated from his superstructure.

Rattrap ignored her glare and expectantly stared past her towards Blackarachnia. She did not fail to see the amused smirk playing at the corners of the spy's lips as he did.

_Annoying little rodent_, Dinobot seethed. She was going to make sure he regretted not heeding her warnings as soon as they returned to the Axalon.

"Contrary to popular belief, I don't have some intense encoded desire to lead a group of dimwitted numb-skulls," Blackarachnia replied with an audible sneer in her voice. "I actually prefer to stay behind the scenes where there's less chance of getting blown to pieces. I only care about who's leading when that 'bot in question doesn't have any amount of measurable intelligence to his name. Luckily, Optimus has yet to prove he shares the same problem as Megatron did. But that doesn't mean I trust him enough to just blindly follow his orders. The only reason I agreed to come along on this mission is because I don't want to see Megatron somehow gain the upper hand with whatever he's planning; and because Primal put Dinobot in charge of leading this goose chase."

Dinobot allowed her surprise at Blackarachnia's comment to show by quirking one eye ridge skeptically at her. "I'm not sure by your tone if I should take that as a compliment or otherwise."

The black widow gave a derisive snort. "Take it as you will, but out of this entire crew, I'd rather have the only other femme that seems to have her head screwed on straight leading than one of these low-RAMed mechs."

"Hey! Watch yer mouth! I can hear ya over here, ya know," Rattrap snarled, his engines revving angrily.

Dinobot smirked. "For once, Widow, we seem to actually agree on something. For I too believe this crew is in need of more intelligent female direction."

From her other side, Dinobot heard Rattrap grumble softly under his intakes, "'Intelligent' my aft…"

Oh, yes. She was going to see that rodent _pay_ for his disrespect once they returned to the ship. And if not with spilt mech-fluid, then at least with a locked passcode to her quarters for the next several decacycles.

Above them, Silverbolt suddenly swooped low to hover several feet off the ground in front of Dinobot. "Commander, we are coming close to the place I spotted Quickstrike and Terrorsaur the night before."

The warrioress nodded. At least _one _of the mechs under her command knew how to follow proper protocol when addressing their superior. "Scout ahead for any sign of where they are camped. The three of us will proceed on foot and wait for your signal."

Silverbolt nodded, and with one mighty flap of his wings, took back to the air. He circled once above them and then banked sharply towards the rocky hills farther ahead. Before long he was lost from sight behind the jagged crests of rock.

The three remaining Maximals continued to travel in silence for several more klicks before the fuzor's voice crackled over Dinobot's external comm-line in a hushed tone as though he feared being overheard by someone on his end. "Silverbolt to commander. I have found the Predacon camp. I count four of them: Quickstrike, Terrorsaur, Inferno and Megatron. They seem to be excavating something from the hills; possibly energon crystals. They also seem to have some kind of jamming tower as Rattrap suspected though it does not seem be having any adverse effects on our comm-links as one would expect."

Dinobot frowned. What was Megatron planning? What could he be digging for? They had never detected any energon signals before in this sector, or any other kind of mineral resources. And why would he have had a jamming tower constructed in the middle of nowhere that had no noticeable effects on their radio signals? These questions only added to the ever-growing unease weighing on the back of the warrioress's processor. On either side of her, Rattrap and Blackarachnia seemed to be having similar thoughts.

"Commander to Silverbolt. Hold your position. We are closing in on your position. E.T.A. two klicks."

Not even waiting for the other two, Dinobot took off in a sharp jog. Rattrap and Blackarachnia both scrambled to keep pace, and within minutes all four Maximals were reunited and crouched together behind a rocky outcrop several hundred feet from the Predacon camp. They all quietly transformed into their bi-pedal forms. Beside Dinobot, Blackarachnia was venting hard for breath.

"Are you alright?" Silverbolt worriedly leaned towards her to ask.

"I'm fine," Blackarachnia groused, and pointedly glared at Dinobot. "My beast-mode's just not cut out to go chasing after hell-bent raptors."

Dinobot ignored her. It was not her problem if others had taken on animals forms that were not conducive to battle or swift travel. Unsheathing her sword from its place on her back, Dinobot leaned forward to scout around the side of their cover. Just as Silverbolt had said, Megatron was there with his three underlings. Their backs were to the group of Maximals, all of them intently focused on a dug out hole at the base of one particular hill. Several dozen paces to their right was what appeared to be a small jamming tower.

"Told'ja dey probably had a jammin' tower," Rattrap smirked.

"But why has it not interfered with any of our previous communications?" Silverbolt said.

"Maybe it's not activated yet," Blackarachnia said.

Dinobot considered this for a moment, but then dismissed it with a frustrated shake of her head. All this talk was getting them nowhere. Whatever Megatron was planning he was doing it right _now_ in front of them. He had to be stopped immediately. This was one thing she could never understand about Maximals: their bullheaded refusal to commit to any course of action without first agonizing over every aspect and moral detail of it to assuage whatever twinge of conscience they might have later on. Dinobot, meanwhile, liked to follow a plan that was best summarized in Rattrap's own words as 'shoot first, ask questions later.'

"Enough of this useless banter," she hissed. "We attack on my signal."

Silverbolt cast her a hesitant look. "Are you sure that is the smartest thing to do? Shouldn't we wait for Airazor and Tigatron to arrive? I don't know if-"

"Primal put me in charge of this operation and it is _my _orders which we will obey," Dinobot snapped, instantly silencing the fuzor. "We do not have time to sit here idly waiting for backup or contemplating our next move while our enemy stands there with his back turned and unaware of our presence. Now is the time to take advantage of the element of surprise."

If any of the others still had lingering doubts, none of them spoke up to voice them. Rattrap just shrugged his shoulders as though deciding to just resign himself to the warrioress's plan rather than try to fight her. He'd already drawn both blasters from their holsters and stared at her with one held ready in each hand.

A silent look passed between them before Dinobot slowly turned to the other two Maximals. "On my mark we move. Blackarachnia, you are to target Terrorsaur. Silverbolt, Inferno. Rattrap, Quickstrike." The warrioress's optics narrowed with a deep-throated growl. "Megatron's mine…"

Dinobot poised herself at the edge of the rocky outcrop. "In three… two… one." Pushing against the rocky surface Dinobot flung herself forward into the open, sword raised and optic-lasers activated. Out of the corner of her optics she noted Rattrap, Silverbolt and Blackarachnia's positions as they emerged from their own cover to fan out behind her - all of them weapons raised.

"Do not move, Megatron," she growled. "You and your men are surrounded."

Megatron stiffened at Dinobot's voice, but visibly forced himself to relax as he slowly turned to face her. Inferno, Terrorsaur and Quickstrike all startled and whipped around, weapons drawn, only to find themselves staring down the barrels of three other guns.

"Ah, my dear Dinobot," Megatron said as though genuinely glad to see his ex-lieutenant. "You are just the 'bot I wanted to see." He glanced off to her side where Rattrap stood with both pistols aimed directly at Quickstrike's chest. "I see you brought the pestilence-ridden rat with you," he noted with open disdain before glancing in Blackarachnia and Silverbolt's directions. "And your fellow traitors-in-arms as well…"

Rattrap flashed him a coy grin. "Nice ta see ya too, Grape-face. But I'd be careful 'bout wha' I say right now if I were you. I have another bomb wit' me just waitin' ta make yer acquaintance."

"Yes…" Megatron growled, optics narrowing. "How could I ever forget that last treacherous move of yours?"

Dinobot shot Rattrap a warning glare. As commander of this mission, it was her responsibility to oversee this showdown, not his. She still had many unresolved issues with the Predacon warlord from the last time they'd crossed paths. "You mechs can keep your petty squabbles between yourselves. I am here on more important business." She speared Megatron with hate-filled, laser-charged optics. "What are you doing here?" she all but snarled. "This is Maximal territory."

Megatron cast her a decidedly evil grin. "Oh, nothing much… Just the complete annihilation of the Maximals and destruction of this primitive planet before my glorious return to Cybertron."

"Oh really?" Dinobot sneered. "And just how do you plan to do that?"

Megatron chuckled low under his intakes which immediately set Dinobot's sensor nodes on edge. She unconsciously gripped her sword tighter. "Well, this-" he swept his arm in a wide arc to indicate the hills and everything else immediately around them, "-is only phase one of my plan. Despite whatever your initial scans of the area might have said, this sector is ripe with large underground energon veins. They were just too deep to detect before with regular scanners and were of such an impure grade they would have been worthless to either of our factions. But after that quantum surge these energon veins were brought closer to the surface and purified by the wave's negative ions from their raw state into more stable, useable crystals. It was only by pure luck that I happened to pick up on these readings a few weeks ago. I made sure to install a energy-dampening tower here to prevent you Maximals from picking up on any of the new readings before I was ready."

"So that is your big plan?" Dinobot sneered. "To mine this energon and use it to return to Cybertron with?"

"Heavens no!" Megatron chuckled, condescending and mean. "I plan to use this particular vein of energon to destroy the Maximal base and everyone aboard it!"

At the Maximals' startled expressions, Megatron elaborated. "You see, many of the energon veins in this sector run for miles in every which direction underground. This particular one-" he gestured to the hole behind him, "-just so happens to pass directly beneath your ship. The detonation of just a single bomb from this end of the deposit will set off a chain reaction that will run all the way along the vein back to your ship and swallow it in an explosion the equivalent of an thirteen kiloton nuclear blast!"

Despite herself, Dinobot felt her fuel lines run cold. A sick feeling of dread settled at the bottom of her tank. If Megatron detonated any kind of bomb right now there would be no way for them to radio back to base in time to warn the others. They'd all perish before they ever even knew they were in danger…

As though enjoying the flash of unguarded emotions across the warrioress's face, Megatron continued. "Then, with you annoying Maximals out of my way once and for all there will be no one to stop me from moving on to phase two of my plans. After which, phase three will be the mining of all the remaining energon in this area to use in my campaign to bring Cybertron to its knees."

"You are mad," Dinobot hissed. "I might have believed in your visions of a Predacon-ruled Cybertron once, but I see now that you are nothing more than an insane megalomaniac."

Megatron did not get angry, but rather scrutinized her almost sadly. "It is a shame these Maximals have degraded you so much from your former self, Dinobot. You would have been wise to chose the winning side while you still had the chance. You could have been my queen - second in command to the most powerful army in the galaxy. But instead you chose to throw it all away for _them._" He spat the last word out as though it left a foul taste in his mouth and sent Rattrap a scathing glare.

Through gnashed teeth, Dinobot growled, "I'd rather have my superstructure smelted down and recast into waste receptacles than be your queen, Megatron."

The warlord frowned, his optics narrowing darkly. "Very well. You've made your decision. But it's not as though you and your pitiful force can stop me now."

"I beg to differ," the warrioress spat. "We are evenly matched in numbers, and it is we that already have our weapons drawn and trained."

"Is that so?" Megatron crooned with a smirk. "Yes, you might have your weapons already out, but you are forgetting to factor in one last person." With this his optics flickered to Dinobot's right, as though looking at something just behind her over her shoulder. "I think you'll find this person to be very… familiar."

With a startled jolt, Dinobot wheeled around to face her unseen attacker. But before she could complete her turn or even rise her sword in self-defense, a painfully solid object smashed into the side of her jaw, nearly snapping her head around her opposite shoulder. There was a moment of suspended weightlessly as she was sent flying off her pedes by the force before she collided with the ground with a sickening crunch of metal.

"Choppa-face!" she heard Rattrap's voice call from somewhere beyond the snowy field of static suddenly filling her visual readouts.

Teetering dangerously close to the brink of unconsciousness, Dinobot lay for several moments on her side in a disembodied daze. It was only by sheer willpower that she finally found the strength to pull her limbs underneath her and shakily push herself up onto her elbows. What _was_ that? No one amongst her former crew was quiet or fast enough to sneak up on her like that, let alone strong enough to almost knock her offline with a single blow. The entire right half of her face throbbed with pain as though someone had just swung a sledgehammer at her. It was only when she touched two fingers to the side of her face to inspect the damage that she realized she was bleeding heavily from a deep gash just above the lower curve of her jaw. Thin drops of silvery blue mech-fluid snaked down her cheek and dripped from the end of her chin.

Blinking back the lingering static from her vision, Dinobot looked up with a chest plate-rattling snarl. She was going to _kill_ whatever dishonorable mech had tried to sneak up on her. But as her optics focused on the towering figure above her, Dinobot abruptly froze and stared at her attacker in shell-shocked silence.

Tall and built with all the characteristics of a front-line combat model was a transmetal femme. Her armor was shades of off-white and silver; while face, neck and torso were a much darker charcoal-grey hue. All four of the femme's limbs ended in bladed extremities - her hands most notably with the most deadly sets of sharpened metal Dinobot had ever seen. But more shocking to the warrioress then the discovery of this new, formidable-looking enemy was the horrified realization that staring down at her from behind this unfamiliar color scheme and external optic laser was none other than her very own image.

"Dinobot, I'd like you to meet my newest servant, Talon," Megatron intoned from somewhere beyond Dinobot's field of vision which was currently focused on nothing else except her transmetal clone.

The transmetal look-alike stared down at her with a single narrowed optic as a nasty sneer slowly spread across her face. "Hello, sister…"

To be continued…

Reviews, as alway, are welcome and most appreciated. A little love goes a long way in modivating me to get a new chapter out.


	3. Facing Oblivion

Much love and appreciation to those that reviewed last chapter. Even if I don't respond to your comments, please know that I read them with the relish only another writer can understand.

**Chapter Three: Facing Oblivion**

Dinobot could not seem to make her neural lines function. They had all seized up with shock. All she could do was stare at this horrifying, demonic version of herself. A part of her wanted to deny what she saw. But no matter how long she stared at this transmetal femme - this _Talon_ - willing her to disappear like the last traces of a bad dream at dawn, she refused to go away.

"What devilry is this?" she finally found the voice to whisper.

A harsh bark of laughter startled Dinobot out of her daze to look back in Megatron's direction. "I would have thought you more than anyone else would be familiar with the idea of cloning," he chuckled. "After all, it's not like I haven't done it before. Although this time-" Megatron's optics flicked from Dinobot to his creation, "-I must say, I finally got it right…" A self-satisfied grin curled both ends of his lips.

As the immediate shock drained from the forefront of Dinobot's processor, smoldering tendrils of outrage blossomed to take its place. "You could not have me, so you decided to take what you wanted by force instead," she hissed. Pulling her legs under her, the warrioress stood. She swayed unsteadily at first but forced herself to straighten and stand tall. She ignored the fuzzy ring of static still ringing her visual readouts. She refused to acknowledge any form of weakness, especially when facing down her former commander. With the back of one hand she smeared the trail of dripping mech-fluid from her chin.

"Your stubborn pride left me no other option," the Predacon tyrant said. "And I _always_ get what I want."

Dinobot sneered, her dentals bared. "You will pay for your hubris, Megatron. I will turn you into a pile of scrap metal for this disrespectful act of impiety."

"You can most certainly _try_," Megatron simpered with a condescending smirk. "But if asked to bet between you or my new servant in a fight, I would place all my credits on Talon."

"You will have to get past me before you get anywhere near Lord Megatron," the clone seconded, flexing her finger blades threateningly at Dinobot. "I am his first, last and _only_ necessary line of defense. He created me to be his ultimate weapon. And no one - not even _you_, my dear sister - will harm him."

Dinobot had to fight down the wave of revulsion that rose in the back of her intake line at her transmetal double's words of devotion. To hear such a proclamation from the mouth of one that looked and sounded so much like her - and for all intents and purposes _was_ her! - made the warrioress ill with disgust. She briefly wondered if this crawling sensation of helpless anger, objectification and dirtiness at the revelation of this clone's existence wasn't unlike what a rape victim would feel in the wake of her assault.

"Unholy abomination," she spat. "Your deactivation will just be my first act in ridding this universe of Megatron's influence before I wipe him from this plane of existence."

Talon's one optic narrowed, her lips peeling back from her teeth with a chest plate-rattling growl. Her tail angrily lashed from side to side behind her. "You will not _touch _him," she snarled.

"You do not frighten me," Dinobot hissed, sinking into a battle stance. She raised her sword into a ready guard position. "You might have been made in my image but you are not me. You are nothing but a cheap clone - as vapid and worthless as one of Megatron's promises."

Talon's teeth gnashed, her single optic flashed a dangerous crimson. "We shall see about that," she growled. Then with a thunderous battle cry she launched herself at Dinobot, her scythe-like digits outstretched and ready to inflict damage.

Dinobot barely had time to raise her sword in defense before her clone's blades clashed against it and slid down its multi-sectioned length. Sparks leapt from the surface of Dinobot's sword. The high-pitched squeal of scrapping metal rendered the Maximal warrioress's audios temporarily deaf. The tension cables in her arm all the way up to her shoulder joint shuddered under the force of the blow. Backpedaling quickly, Dinobot swung the tip of her sword down to deflect another of the transmetal femme's attacks. The whistle of displaced air followed immediately in the wake of Talon's sharpened digits.

As Talon pressed her attack, Dinobot heard Megatron shout somewhere behind her. "Inferno, ready the explosive! We've drilled close enough to the energon vein now to destroy the Maximals and their base once and for all. Quickstrike, Terrorsaur, open fire and exterminate those Maximal-loving traitors and the spy. I want no survivors!"

Dinobot twisted to the side and deflected another swipe of Talon's claws to her midsection with mere millimeters to spare while behind her utter chaos unleashed itself upon her comrades…

* * *

Rattrap barely had time to realize what was happening before everything suddenly deteriorated from bad to worse. A virtual shower of laser blasts and bullets rained down on him, Silverbolt and Blackarachnia. Dropping to his knees, Rattrap curled inwards and rolled behind a nearby boulder. He was lucky his frame was so much smaller than the average mech's or a good portion of himself would have still be visible around the edges of his makeshift cover. He lay stretched on the ground behind it with both arms tucked close against his sides as artillery fire hammered his position. Bits of heat-scorched rock crumbled down on his head. The smell of burnt ozone choked his olfactory sensors.

Off to his right Blackarachnia and Silverbolt also scrambled for cover - both ducking back behind the stand of rocks they, he and Dinobot had used to sneak up behind Megatron with earlier.

_Yea, sure. Leave da rat ta fend fer himself, _he groused as a particularly powerful laser blast exploded against the other side of his cover. Carefully drawing one of his blasters up he curled his arm around the boulder and sent several wild shots in Terrorsaur and Quickstrike's direction. There was a momentarily pause in enemy fire as his shots forced the Predacons to seek their own cover, which Rattrap took advantage of to quickly peek around the side and take stock of their situation.

Several meters to his left Dinobot and Talon were locked in vicious hand-to-hand combat. From what he could tell from a distance the two were almost evenly matched, although it was obvious Talon had a slight advantage over Dinobot in that with her finger blade upgrades she was basically wielding two separate weapons while Dinobot was forced to fend off her attacks with only a sword. Dinobot, nevertheless, did not appear ready to back down in any way, and fought back Talon's attacks with her typical savage ruthlessness. As Rattrap watched, Dinobot in an extremely impressive move somehow wove her sword between two of Talon's fingers and twisted it clockwise - forcing Talon to instinctively bend her elbow to accommodate the action - and used the opening to press forward and slam her fist directly into the clone's face.

_Dat's what ya get fer sneakin' up on her like ya did, Ginzu Fingers, _Rattrap grinned with vindictive glee.

Talon's head spun around her opposite shoulder, but the transmetal femme did not go down as he half suspected and half hoped. If anything, the murderous light in Talon's single optic shined even brighter as she slowly turned back to face Dinobot, her teeth bared in a mindless snarl of rage. With a fearsome howl she lunged at Dinobot. The screech of metal against metal echoed across the small distance separating the two femmes from Rattrap. As he watched, Talon swiped one hand at the Maximal warrioress's left side. The tips of her sharpened fingers made contact. Dinobot gave an involuntary shout of pain as energon gushed from four symmetric slash marks suddenly splitting her torso. Like water the thick fluid poured from the gashes and almost instantly covered the ex-Predacon's hip and leg in a shimmery coat of iridescent purple. She visibly staggered, one hand pressed to her bleeding side.

All of Rattrap' tension cords stiffened, his mech fluid running cold. "Choppa'face!" he called over the thunder of Predacon fire. "Ya okay?"

Although the warrioress did not glance in his direction she snarled a response. Her optics did not leave her clone - Talon all the while grinning like a shark who'd just smelt blood in the water - as Dinobot visibly forced herself to straighten despite the slashes in her side and bring her sword up to bear once again. "Do _not_ interfere, vermin! Stop Megatron and Inferno. Do not let them detonate that explosive!"

Rattrap was torn. Part of him willing to do just as Dinobot said. (His comrades and friends sat unaware of the danger currently threatening them on the other end of this energon vein.) But another part of him - a seldom acknowledged and usually sneered at part of him - wanted to ignore her and go to her aide. Although he was more than aware of Dinobot's ability to take care of herself in a fight (better than he himself could, actually), his spark burned with an undeniable feeling that as her lover he should do something to defend her. Maybe it was an instinct programmed into all mechs' hardware, or maybe it was a personal glitch. Whatever the case, Rattrap found it surprisingly difficult to honor Dinobot's orders and turn his attention to the more pressing issue at hand.

Inferno and Megatron had retreated several paces back from Terrorsaur and Quickstrike to the edge of the energon line's excavation site. As Megatron continued a steady stream of blasts from his fusion canon (most of which, Rattrap was dismayed to note, seemed to be aimed in his direction), Inferno had begun the laborious task of dragging what appeared to be cargo trunk-sized, cylindrical object towards the hole. A plethora of different colored wires sprouted from it's sides and terminated in a digital panel on its front.

Rattrap recognized the model with a distinct sinking feeling in the pit of his fuel tank. What Megatron and his merry band of Predacons had was the main detonation core of a military-grade subterranean bunker buster with a hotwired control panel. Officially known by its manufacturing code BLU-82, those in the demolition field had taken to calling it "the Leveler" for its ability to almost instantly make any standing object in its detonation zone horizontally equal with the ground. One used during the Great War was said to have leveled an entire colony somewhere in the Sarlax II system.

"Oh, slag…" Rattrap murmured.

This was not good. Not good at all. He had no idea how Megatron managed to get his servos on such a powerful piece of military equipment, but he was certain if they didn't do something very soon he and his fellow Maximals were going to come to a very messy, unpleasant end. To his right, Blackarachnia and Silverbolt were pinned in position by Terrorsaur and Quickstrike while to his left Dinobot had been forced to resort to her optic lasers to drive off Talon's relentless attacks. As cliché as it was Rattrap was the Maximals' only hope.

"Aw, man! Why's it always gotta be me dat has ta risk his neck?" the spy moaned as another round of laser fire forced him to drop back down behind his cover. Readying himself for what was next, Rattrap tightened his grip on both blasters. "Lizard Lips's gonna owe me big fer dis," he muttered angrily in promise to himself. Then taking one last steadying intake, he pushed himself to his knees.

* * *

"Come on out, sugar-bot, 'n play!" Quickstrike drawled with a laugh as another barrage of bullets peppered the other side of the rocks Blackarachnia was sheltered behind. "I promise I won't bite!"

The black widow's optics narrowed as she swung out from behind the rocks and answered the fuzor's fire with several blasts of her own. "Well I can't promise I won't purge if I have to look at you up close," she called back with a sneer.

"Dang hotsy-totsy female," the scorpion-snake bristled. He raised his cobra-headed arm and fired several angry shots. Blackarachnia quickly ducked back behind just as the plasma blasts terminated on the other side of the rocks.

"That is no way to speak to a lady!" Silverbolt shouted from off to her side and sent a wing missile whistling in Quickstrike's direction. The Predacon fuzor tried to duck out of its path but was unable to get far enough to prevent being knocked down by the resulting blast wave. As if in retaliation, Terrorsaur opened fire on them with renewed purpose with a screechy battle cry.

Blackarachnia and Silverbolt both dropped low for cover.

"Why'd you do that?" Blackarachnia growled. "I could have taken care of him myself. I didn't need you jumping in like that, especially when we still have Terrorsaur and Megatron firing on us."

Silverbolt glanced at her as though surprised by her indignation. "What he said to you was inexcusable," he said. "I cannot stand hearing any kind of disrespect like that directed towards a lady."

"Well you can save your chivalry because I don't need it," Blackarachnia snipped. "I'm not some helpless damsel in distress that needs rescue."

"Hey, bug lady! Rover! Gimme some suppressive fire over here, will ya?" Rattrap's voice suddenly called over the drum of Predacon fire.

Their spat interrupted, the two carefully peered around the corner towards their smaller comrade. Rattrap was pinned behind a small boulder half a dozen yards to their left.

"Any time today!" he yelled. "Or would'ja _like_ ta have our base blown ta bits?"

"You can count on us!" Silverbolt called back, and obediently opened a fresh volley of fire on the Predacon line. Blackarachnia glared at Silverbolt for a moment of lingering contempt before following suit and firing in her former faction's direction. Out of the corner of her optic she watched as Rattrap got up, scurried behind another stand of rocks further to their left, and disappeared out of sight. She had no idea what he was planning. She just hoped they hadn't been fooled into giving him cover so he could make an unexcused retreat. She didn't trust the spy enough yet to not put it past him to try something as cowardly and underhanded as that…

Turning her attention back to conflict at hand, she concentrated fire on Terrorsaur who now held the Predacon's front line. Quickstrike had yet to make any move to rise from where he'd fallen. Megatron, meanwhile, had taken position several paces behind them and offered rear-line cover fire as Inferno dragged what looked like a large metal cone towards the edge of their dig site. Blackarachnia couldn't say for sure, but she was pretty sure that was the bomb the Predacon warlord had been going on about before.

She must have been concentrating a little too hard its looming danger than the fight at hand, because it took her completely by surprise when one of Megatron's fusion blasts exploded only several inches to her left. A plume of heat and bits of pulverized rock struck her hard in the side. Jettisoned off her feet by the force, Blackarachnia was thrown like a rag doll out from behind her cover into the open. She didn't even have a chance to give a startled shout before she collided with the ground in a limp pile of limbs. Her blaster went flying from her pincher. Stunned and half-deaf and blind from the explosion, the black widow lay sprawled insensate on the ground.

"Blackarachnia!" she thought she heard someone behind her shout. Laser blasts continued to slice the air all around her, but she couldn't sluice her neural circuits together enough to fully comprehend the danger in which she now found herself. It was only when she felt another presence suddenly appear beside her seemingly out of nowhere that the spider was rattled somewhat out of her daze.

"Hold on," the presence said. Through a rapid series of flickers Blackarachnia was able to clear the static from her visual readouts enough to realize her rescuer was none other than the annoying do-gooder, Silverbolt.

Shielding her with his own body as he sent several wing missiles speeding towards their attackers, the fuzor slipped both arms under Blackarachnia's legs and shoulders and lifted her almost effortlessly up into his arms. Then turning tail, he swung around and dove back behind their shared cover. Artillery fire hammered against the other side of the rock face.

"Are you alright?" Silverbolt asked as he gently leaned Blackarachnia back against the boulders.

"Huh," Blackarachnia murmured as her senses slowly came back to her. "I guess I was wrong. I really was a damsel in distress."

Silverbolt's lips quirked into a gentle smile. "I suppose, although I'm sure you're not going to make it a habit of it."

"You never know," she replied coyly. "A girl could get used to having a big strong mech charging in to save the day like that."

Unbidden, their optics met and locked. For several endless seconds of eternity, the two held each other's gaze as though suddenly seeing each other for the first time. It was in that moment Blackarachnia caught a glimpse of something more than just idiotic chivalry and honor in the fuzor's optics. Something that went deeper and held more meaning than anything she'd ever seen before. Something that was slightly frightening in its purity and passion because, at least for that suspended moment of time, it was directed at no one else but herself…

Unfortunately, their moment was cut short by a particularly hard fusion blast slamming against the opposite side of their hiding spot.

"Come now and show yourselves," Megatron's voice called over the echo of its boom. "I don't believe I received an official severance notice from either of you before your treacherous change of allegiance." By the proximity of his voice it seemed the warlord had decided to finally enter the fight more directly.

Blackarachnia and Silverbolt glanced at each other and shared the same unspoken thought:

Things were about to turn very ugly…

* * *

"You fight a hopeless battle," Talon observed as Dinobot bat aside her clone's claws and made a wild stab at the transmetal femme's spark chamber. Talon ducked out of her sword's path with infuriatingly familiar skill and brought her claws down on Dinobot's upturned blade with a shuddering crash. "You are outnumbered and outclassed. It is only a matter of minutes before the rest of Primal's pathetic crew precede you into the afterlife."

Dinobot grit her teeth. As much as she didn't want to admit it, the possibility of her clone being right was slowly becoming more and more likely. Although she couldn't say what the rest of her scout party's situation was (she didn't dare risk taking her optics off Talon even for a second to look) she herself was not faring well. Besides four deep gashes on her side, countless other smaller, shallow cuts covered her superstructure where Talon had managed to sneak past her defenses and land a hit. Her hands and forearms had taken the majority of the abuse. Several slash marks had cut so deeply Dinobot could actually see her own skeletal structure between the edges of torn protoform. Energon, mech fluid and other vital fluids covered her in a sticky purple coat. She pointedly ignored the dull throb of pain radiating through her body. Talon, meanwhile, only sported several superficial cuts. Although it burned her to say, her clone was proving to be a much more dangerous opponent than she originally anticipated. It appeared Tarantulas had improved his cloning technology since his first attempt more than a year before.

Talon pressed forward, forcing Dinobot to spin away to avoid the Predacon clone's razor-sharp claws. Their tips dripped with Dinobot's own life fluids. "It is only a matter of time before Lord Megatron removes you meddling Maximals from his path and is able to return to Cybertron to seize his rightful place as overlord," she said, her single optic bright with anticipated victory. "With your destruction he will be one step closer in returning the Predacons to their former glory."

"And you believe your blind devotion to him will earn you any kind of reward in the end?" Dinobot sneered.

Talon glared at her, menacing and fell. "His victory is my victory. His rewards mine. My only function is to serve him. If Lord Megatron offers me any tangible reward, it will be because I earned it by serving him to the utmost of my ability. I ask nothing of him except the honor of serving him."

"You are a fool," Dinobot spat, once again sickened to the core by what she heard. "At least I came to my senses and left Megatron's cause before I was deluded into following him any farther down his road of madness than I already had. You are nothing but a mindless drone made to fill a place in his ranks no one else with a properly functioning processor would fill."

Talon snarled, murderous rage flashing through her optic. With unforeseen speed she lunged at Dinobot. The warrioress instinctively raised her sword, ready to meet the force Talon's blow. As expected, the transmetal femme brought one hand smashing down on Dinobot's sword. Sparks leapt between the two surfaces of sharpened metal. But unlike every other time Talon had come at her, instead of breaking off to pull her hand back for another strike, Talon swung her other hand upwards underneath hers and Dinobot's crossed blades - her blood-stained claws outstretched and hungry.

Unable to bring her sword down in time to deflect Talon's hand, Dinobot screamed as the scythe-like blades of Talon's fingers plunged deep into her unguarded torso. Angled upwards underneath her rib struts towards her spark chamber, Dinobot was lifted halfway off her pedes. She could actually feel the tips of Talon's fingers scratch against the bottom of her spark chamber.

The warrioress gasped against the unexpected explosion of pain, her visual readout going momentarily black. She unconsciously dropped her sword to claw at the merciless hand suddenly buried knuckle-deep inside her. The taste of mech-fluid rose in the back of her mouth. Dinobot hung impaled from the end of Talon's hand, her pedes just barely touching the ground.

Slowly drawing Dinobot close - Dinobot bit down on her lips to keep from crying out in pain at the motion - Talon craned her face into the Maximal warrioress's line of vision. "I am not some mindless drone as you seem to think," she hissed low under her breath as though sharing some important secret with Dinobot. "I am a perfect copy of yourself. The only difference between you and I is that I understand my place and purpose. I am not deluded by my own ambitions and did not turn my back on the prospect of sharing in Lord Megatron's victory by throwing my lot in with these pathetic Maximals like you did. I am almost disappointed that even now in these last few moments of function you still do not seem to recognize you chose the losing side."

Blinking back the static from her vision enough to focus on the harsh contours of Talon's face, Dinobot speared her with a venomous look. "As I said before," she gurgled against the rising pool of mech fluid in her throat. "You are a complete fool." Then mustering what remained of her rapidly diminishing strength, Dinobot lashed one foot out at Talon. Although it lacked the amount of force she intended, her raptor claw nevertheless made contact and left a long deep gash across Talon's upper thigh.

The transmetal femme howled in surprise and wrenched her hand free of Dinobot's torso. Dinobot crumpled limply to the ground, clutching her shredded chest. Energon poured from her and almost instantly covered the ground beneath her in a growing puddle of her own energon. Blackness ringed her vision. Several warning boxes began to flash with mounting urgency across her visual readout. The tips of her fingers were already beginning to go numb. She tried to get her arms underneath her to push herself off the ground but almost instantly collapsed back down onto her side. A harsh fit of coughs seized her, making her spasm down against the rocky ground in pain. Something wet splattered her lips and it took the warrioress a moment to realize the substance was drops of energon - unsurprising evidence of severe internal damage.

Above her, Talon had retreated several feet. The gash across her right thigh was bleeding heavily. She stared down at Dinobot with unconcealed contempt. "I should kill you now," she hissed. "It is embarrassing to see the originator of my genetic code writhing on the ground just like a gutted animal. It is ignoble and unbecoming of a warrior." She took a step towards Dinobot, her talons gleaming wetly in the dull light. Cautiously lowing herself to one knee she leaned down over the bleeding warrioress and stared into her dimmed optics. "A quick death, however, is too good for you. Not after the blasphemous words you spoke against my Lord. Instead I will let you lie here and watch as Lord Megatron enacts his revenge against your worthless comrades before you slip away into the Well of Allsparks alone, unremembered and honorless…"

Despite the numbing pain slowly spreading through her body, Dinobot gnashed her teeth at Talon. "Begone, foul creature! Let your perverted image taint my sight no longer."

Talon smirked, vindictive and cruel. "As you wish," she said, and rose once more to her pedes. "Have no fear. Your Maximal friends will not be far behind you into the next world. I will see to it personally that the ones that accompanied you here follow close in your steps."

Then, turning her back on the bleeding warrioress, Talon walked away back towards the sound of distant gunfire…

_To be continued..._

Holler back if you'd like to know what happens next. (Like, seriously. Let's not be mooches here. I don't like to complain but I think it's only fair to review a fic if you're reading it. It's not fair to the writer otherwise.)


	4. Desperate Measures

Holy crap on a cracker! This must be a new record for an update. But this chapter was entirely too much fun and seemed to literally write itself.

**Chapter Four: Desperate Measures**

Rattrap scrambled from one rocky outcrop to the other, always in the direction on the uncovered energon vein. Since Silverbolt and Blackarachnia had given him an opening to move he hadn't been the aim of any direct enemy fire. The two seemed to have managed to divert all Predacon attention towards themselves, including Megatron's own. As the spy came within the last few yards of the dig site he saw that Megatron had left Inferno to finish setting the explosive charge himself while he went to join Terrorsaur in pounding Silverbolt and Blackarachnia's position with fusion canons and lasers. Inferno's back was to Rattrap. The fire ant knelt beside the oversized weapon, fiddling with several last minute wire connections. As far as Rattrap could tell he was completely unaware of the spy's presence.

"Looks like things're finally startin' ta go our way," Rattrap murmured softly to himself. Gripping both blasters tight, the spy swung out from behind his cover while simultaneously aiming both pistols between the fire ant's shoulder struts. "Freeze, six legs."

Inferno stiffened and whirled around, his hand automatically reaching for the flame thrower at his hip.

"I'm serious, ugly," Rattrap warned. "I got'cha directly in my sites. Make one wrong move an' I'll blast ya inta next week."

"Enemy of the colony," the fire ant swore. His optics narrowed with burning hatred.

"Move away from da bomb," Rattrap ordered. He waggled the tip of one pistol to the side to emphasize his point. "Or I'll shoot'cha right between da eyes before yer fingers ever even get close ta yer gun," he emphasized with his other pistol which he rose a fraction of an inch higher to sight down the scope.

Inferno snarled, his mandibles quivering with rage. "You shall not interfere with the Royalty's plans."

Rattrap chuckled. "An' who's gonna stop me? You?"

With a shriek of fury, Inferno's hand shot for his hip. Rattrap opened fire but the fire ant ducked aside, dodging the spy's shots by mere millimeters. A massive plume of flames shot towards Rattrap, forcing him to drop to the ground and roll out of its path. The air sizzled around him. He could feel his transmetal armor physically buckle against his frame in the intense heat. In one smooth motion he rolled back to his feet and dropped to one knee to send another volley of laser-fire towards Inferno.

This time, Inferno was not fast enough to duck and took two hits straight in the shoulder. With a shriek of pain, he fell backwards to the ground. As he fell, his finger involuntarily clenched down on the trigger of his flame thrower and sent a twisting spiral of fire dancing into the air.

Standing again, Rattrap rose to his pedes and cautiously approached the downed Predacon. He knocked the flame thrower from Inferno's hand with a kick as he came up beside him. The fire ant stared up at him from the ground, his optics glowing as if the very flames of the Pit burned behind their lens.

"Heh heh," Rattrap chuckled. "Told'ja I'd shoot ya if ya didn' move." The spy slowly straightened one arm, the fire ant's helm centered in his sites. "Now tell me. What are ya usin' as a detonator fer dat bomb?"

"I will not tell you anything, foul vermin," the drone growled.

Rattrap leaned down further, pressing the barrel of his gun flat against the side of Inferno's helm. His optics narrowed threateningly. "Listen, bub. I have no qualms 'bout blastin' yer ugly head right off yer shoulders and figurin' out how ya wired dat thing myself. I'm just tryin ta give ya da chance ta save me a lot'ov time an' you a messy end. Got it?"

Inferno visibly hesitated. He stared up at Rattrap as though trying to calculate the probability of Rattrap following through on his threat. As though choosing not to push his chances, he speared Rattrap with a scathing glare and bit out between clenched dentals, "Timed detonator. I'd already set the detonator for ten minutes when you attacked me."

"You already started da count down process?" Rattrap demanded.

Inferno gave one contemptuous nod.

Rattrap felt all the circuits in his body involuntarily clench and mech fluid run cold. Ten minutes? If what Inferno said was true then he had probably no more than nine minutes to disarm the bomb before it blew him and his comrades - both present and those back at base - to kingdom come. He had to hurry or they were all as good as dead.

"Ya better not be tryin' ta pull one over on me or I swear ta Primus I'll deactivate you so fast you'll already be burnin' in da Pit before ya even know ya were dead," he growled. Keeping one gun trained on Inferno, Rattrap slowly began to back away from him towards the bomb. "If I see ya move a single cable I'll blast ya."

"I think not," another voice said behind him.

His carburetor skipping several revolutions in surprise, Rattrap whirled around. He began to raise his gun to defend himself against his unforeseen attacker, but at the sight of the one standing there made the spy involuntarily froze.

Like the living image of some ancient harbinger of death, Talon stared down at him, barely two feet away. How she'd managed to sneak up on him so quietly, he had no idea. The transmetal femme's single optic bore into his. Although she was the exact same height and build as Dinobot, the warrioress's clone seemed somehow taller and more intimidating to Rattrap than her original counterpart ever had. She seemed to literally tower over him, her elongated shadow swallowing him in semi-darkness. The spy instinctively shrunk back from her, an undeniable thrill of terror shooting down the length of his spinal strut despite the surprise of her sudden appearance still clouding the forefront of his processor.

With nothing more than a snarl, Talon raised one hand and viciously backhanded Rattrap against the side of his head. The spy went flying. For a half second of eternity he was completely weightless. For half a second of eternity he sailed through the air before reconnecting with the ground with a harsh, frame-rattling crunch. Pain slammed through his body's neural lines with all the finesse of a runaway freight train. He lay where he'd fallen in a disjointed daze, wondering idly if it was physically possible for a Cybertronian body to crumple in on itself under extreme pressure. A worrisome metallic rattle sounded somewhere deep inside him as he shakily pushed himself into a semi-sitting position.

"Anyone ever tell ya ya hit like a battering ram?" he slurred as he tried to blink the snowstorm of static from his vision. Something wet was smeared against his cheek where Talon had struck him. He gingerly touched it. His fingers came back covered in a thin film of energon, mech-fluid and several other substances he wasn't sure he wanted to know what they were. It was only when he touched his hand once more to his face to find the source of bleeding that he realized with a confused jolt that none of the fluids were his own.

Shakily rolling to his knees, then his feet, he staggered as he stood. The spy tried to raise his weapons at the female Predacon but was having difficulty deciding which of Talon's four images he should aim for.

The familiar contours of Dinobot's face twisted into a sneer as Talon glared back at him. As the four transmetal femmes slowly coalesced into a single image Rattrap was finally able to properly take in the image of his lover's clone. He almost dropped both his guns in horror at what he saw.

Talon was literally covered in energon. Smears and speckled spray patterns of iridescent purple crisscrossed her limbs and torso in a grotesque collage of gore. A long streak of visceral matter transected one side of her face from forehead to chin. Several cuts marred her superstructure here and there, but Rattrap could see no injuries to actually account for the amount of gore he saw. It was then his horrified optics settled on her hands. Both sets of claws were stained a solid shade of purple. A clump of half-congealed energon dangled from the tip of one finger blade like the macabre parody of a spider hanging from the end of its thread.

"Where's Dinobot?" he demanded as a sudden, horrifying thought struck him like a physical blow to the coolant tank. He struggled to keep any emotions from seeping into his voice, but the words slipped from his mouth in a strangled whisper.

Talon's lips curled back from her teeth in a cruel grin. "I left her laying in a pool of her own energon," was her answer.

Rattrap froze in place, all power of conscious movement draining from him like water through a sieve. The pulse of his spark thundered in his audios, giving soundtrack to the steadily mounting sense of panic inside him. So much fluid… How could Dinobot still be alive with so much of her vital fluids covering Talon's hands? How badly was she injured? Dinobot would never let anyone walk away from her in a fight as long as she was still functional.

Ignoring the look of settling horror on the spy's face, Talon turned back to Inferno. With one hand she reached down, grabbed his by the shoulder guard and roughly yanked him to his pedes. "Go help Lord Megatron," she said as she shoved the fire ant away from her in the direction of nearby gunfire. "I will see to it than no one interferes with the bomb."

Inferno seemed confused by this sudden turn of events, as though unsure whether to follow Talon's command or not. "Yes, my Lady," he finally said with a nod.

As Inferno hurried away Talon turned back to Rattrap. Her stained finger blades glistened wetly in the overcast light.

"Disgusting rodent," she snarled. "I will take nothing but the greatest pleasure in tearing you apart and presenting your dismembered head to Lord Megatron as a trophy. He still burns with the memory of your deceitful bomb trick."

In his lingering daze, Rattrap failed to recognize the irony of that familiar title coming from his lover's clone. All he could really focus on was the physical aura of danger the transmetal femme seemed to exude. Everything about her reminded him of Dinobot but amplified a thousand times over. Her fighting stance. Her stature. The ferocious gleam of bloodlust in her optic. Everything about her was exactly like the Maximal warrioress, but not. It was terrifying and altogether unnerving to be faced by this familiar yet alien presence.

Mustering his bearings, Rattrap leveled both guns at the Predacon femme. "Listen, One Eye, I don' care if ya look like Choppa'face or not, I'm not about ta let ya blow me or any ov my friends up wit' dat Daisy Cutter over der. If it's gonna come down ta an issue of it bein' either you or me, I'm gonna chose me. Ya can ask anyone else on my crew 'bout it 'cause they'll all tell ya da exact same thing."

Talon grinned, as though intrigued by the spy's unforeseen display of gumption. Her stance dropped low like a predator taking to the scent of her prey. She flexed her finger blades threateningly. "Is that so?" she mused with a condescending smirk. "While I do appreciate your willingness to engage me in battle, I can assure you doing so will result in nothing but your own messy demise. You might have spent some time in the presence of my original half and are now familiar with her fighting techniques, but she and I are not the same. Lord Megatron was wise to see to it that all traces of Dinobot's less than desirable qualities - namely her sympathies towards you Maximals and your pathetic ways - were never introduced to my core programming. While I am her physical copy, I possess none of her weaknesses or entertain loyalties to anyone else except Lord Megatron."

Rattrap grimaced, Talon's words a disturbing glimpse at what Dinobot might have been like before she joined Primal's crew or what she might have become if they hadn't been able to rescue her from Megatron and an unwanted sparkbond. A wave of intense loathing coursed through Rattrap. Talon might have looked like Dinobot and sounded and moved exactly like the warrioress, but he hated her with a sudden burning passion he usually reserved only for those who cheated at Kardissian poker and Megatron himself.

"I can tell I'm gonna have no trouble sendin ya back ta Megatron full ov holes," he said with false bravado.

Talon must have been brought online with basic stat-bios of her intended enemies because her reply was a derisive bark of laughter. Apparently his bluff of bravery had not been taken. "Oh, I am going to take more pleasure in ridding this planet of your plague-infested presence than is proper for a warrior to - especially when the opponent in question is so pathetic a challenge. But one shouldn't snub what small pleasures are presented to them in this brief walk of life…"

Rattrap didn't even bother with a sharp-tongued quip before opening fire on the transmetal femme. He was running out of time. By his estimations there was maybe only seven minutes left before the bomb's countdown reached zero. He had to hurry. Not to mention he still had no idea where Dinobot or any of the others were or what situations they were in. With each tick of his internal chronometer he could feel the cold whisper of Death breathing a little closer on the back of his neck.

Talon darted out of the path of Rattrap's fire. With a bounding leap she covered the short distance separating them and was suddenly directly in front of him. With one hand she clubbed Rattrap's gun out of his grip and followed through with a stunning glance to the side of his head with her other fist. Rattrap's visual readouts flashed white. Before he could recover his cognitive functions, Talon spun on her heels and whipped his feet out from him with her tail. The spy hit the ground hard. His insides once again made a worrisome rattle. With a swift kick Talon disarmed him of his last remaining gun.

"Foul vermin," she snarled as she dropped to one knee overtop him, one set of gore-stained claws reaching down to wrap around his throat. "I was hoping for at least a little bit more of a challenge from you."

Rattrap's hands flew to the merciless blades suddenly encircling his neck. Their sharpened edges bit into the soft proto-matter of his fingers as he strained to pull Talon's claws away from him. Laying there, pinned on his back beneath the larger femme Rattrap was seized by the sudden irony that only several hours earlier he'd been caught in almost the exact same position underneath Dinobot - only her intentions had been of a much more pleasurable kind then while this twisted version of the warrioress only wanted to bring him to an early termination.

"Give my regards to Dinobot when you see her again on the other side," Talon leaned down to snarl in his face. "Because I half suspect she is already waiting for you there."

Rattrap grit his dentals together in helpless anger and fear. Energon trailed from his shredded fingers down his wrists and the lengths of forearms. His arms physically shook with the effort of keeping Talon's fingers from closing completely shut around his neck. He could just feel the touch of their sharpened edges ghosting against the side of his throat. Every tension cable from his shoulders to hands burned with the strain of holding her fingers back.

Despite his best efforts, the edge of one blade slowly sank into the surface of his superstructure. Mech-fluid welled up between the edges of sliced proto-mattered and trickled down the spy's neck into the ground beneath. A fresh wave of panic seized Rattrap. Above him, Talon grinned into his face as though already savoring the taste of victory.

_No. No, no, no no nononono… _Rattrap frantically chanted in the back of his mind as Talon's claws slowly sank deeper into the sides of his neck.

But then, just as Rattrap was certain his doom had finally come for him just as he always said it would, the whistle of jet-thrusters screamed across the sky overhead. The muffled _pomph pomph pomph _of blaster fire thumped over the background patter of gunfire. The razor-sharp claws around his neck suddenly disappeared as Talon reared back from over him, the off-white armor of her left shoulder charred black and smoking slightly. The transmetal femme snarled and retreated several paces from him, her body sunk low in a battle stance and single optic turned up to the sky above.

Rattrap lay for a moment unable to move in the wake of his near-death experience.

"Rattrap, you okay?" a familiar voice called down to him.

Shaking his neural circuits back into working order, the spy looked above to see Airazor hovering several dozen feet in the air.

"You have no idea how glad I am ta see ya, bird girl," he shakily called back. With considerable effort he forced his shaking arms to push himself off the ground.

Airazor dropped down out of the sky and lighted on the ground beside him. "Lucky for you Tigatron and I got here when we did. It looks like you guys are in need of some major backup."

"You have _no _idea…" Rattrap darkly murmured and glanced around Airazor back towards the one who'd just come so close to ending his function. Airazor followed his gaze and gasped at the sight of Talon.

"Is that who I think it is?" she demanded in a horrified whisper.

Rattrap nodded. "Ol' Megs apparently couldn' stand da thought ov Choppa'face not wantin' ta be with him an' decided ta make an upgraded copy ov her fer himself."

Airazor appeared at a loss for words and stared in shell-shocked silence at the transmetal femme.

Talon returned the flier's gaze with a threatening snarl. Sinking into a low battle stance she glared at the two Maximals with simmering rage in her optic. "Reinforcements will not be enough to save you now, Maximals," she growled. Out of the corner of her optic she glanced in the direction of the bomb Inferno had dragged to the lip of the energon vein. Her lips curled back in a decidedly evil grin. "Your doom is already certain," she said as she straightened from her battle stance. "My presence is no longer necessary here to assure it." Then with a nasty parting smirk she turned tail and disappeared from sight between a jagged stand of rocks back in the direction of distant gunfire.

Airazor and Rattrap stared after her, not immediately sure what to make of her abrupt departure.

"What was that about?" Airazor said.

Rattrap turned to the bomb with a renewed tingling of impending doom. "Oh no…" he murmured and darted for the explosive. Airazor followed close behind him, still unaware of the level of danger looming over her and her fellow Maximals.

The spy dropped to his knees beside the explosive. His coolant tank sank as he surveyed the device. Thin wisps of smoke curled from the center of large blaster hole that'd punched itself almost dead center in the bomb's control panel. Sparks crackled between the charred pieces of metal. Several bundles of severed wire lines hung limply over the jagged sides of the hole. Despite the damage, however, a small digital screen just to the right of it continued to count down to the bomb's programmed detonation. The numbers currently read '6:23" and continued to steadily decrease with each passing second.

"Oh no…" Rattrap murmured again in dawning horror. "I must'a accidentally hit it when I ambushed Inferno."

"Can you disarm it?" Airazor asked. Despite the flier's best attempts Rattrap could still hear the subtle note of panic tainting the back of her voice.

"I don't know," Rattrap said, frantically tugging at the edges of burnt consol. Its twisted remains came off in Rattrap's hands in two separate chunks of blaster-scorched metal. He tossed them away without a second glance. "Most ov da wires are almost completely melted," he said as he plunged his hands deep into the explosive's internal circuitry. "I can't tell which wires connect da fuel cells to da detonator or which ones're operatin' da timer. Dey're all just one giant fused mess."

Panic visibly flashes across Airzor's face. "What do we do?" she demanded.

Rattrap helpless shook his head. "I might be able ta slow da countdown, but dat's it. Da detonator core's already been activated. It's just powerin' up ta full charge now. I might be able ta buy us a few minutes before it blows, but dat doesn' do anything ta help da others dat are on da other end of this energon vein when it does." As he frantically shifted through the multi-colored remains of melted wires and fuse lines, Rattrap swallowed against the rising rush of dread in the back of his intake line.

_Gotta keep calm. Gotta keep calm or you'll end up blowin' yerself an' everyone else up before dat clock reaches zero, _Rattrap coached. The seconds seem to tick by with increasing speed as he worked. The spy barely even felt the pain of his shredded fingers as he quickly but delicately pried wire after semi-melted wire apart in search of the line he needed. The intense concentration necessary for bomb defusing stole any and all other conscious thought away from him.

Finally, after several minutes of near unbearable tension he spotted a single soot-charred blue line running from the back of the control panel's timer. "Bingo," he murmured. Tapping open a small storage compartment on the inside of his forearm he withdrew a small pair of wire cutters and snipped the wire's end and several others running alongside it. A field-grade soldering torch followed the wire cutters from his makeshift bomb kit and with several puffs of smoke he rewired the lines back together in a completely different array.

"There," he said as he leaned back to inspect his handiwork. The numbers on the timer continued to count down - only now instead of clicking down one mark every second as it had been, two or three seconds passed between each new subtracting tick.

"How much time do we have?" Airazor asked.

Rattrap did a quick calculation. "Ten, maybe twelve, minutes."

"What to we do? We can't just let this thing blow up."

Rattrap frantically racked his processor. "If we can somehow get dis thing far enough away from da energon vein, we might be able ta keep da explosion from ignitin' da entire vein. We might be able ta save da Axalon dat way."

"How do we do that?" Airazor asked.

Rattrap glanced up and held the flier's gaze steadily with his own. "Drag it as far away from here as possible, den run like hell in da opposite direction…"

* * *

"This situation can't get any worse!" Blackarachnia swore as she ducked low and covered her head with both hands. Fire licked over the top of her cover as Inferno's insane laughter drifted across the distance separating her and her comrades from Megatron and his men.

"Don't say that or it will," Tigatron shouted back to her over the boom of one of Megatron's fusion blasts. The scout had arrived only moments before and was already deeply entrenched in the fight beside Blackarachnia and Silverbolt. His snowy white armor was smeared black in several places with streaks of dirt and soot.

Blackarachnia responded with an annoyed sneer. Carefully swinging out from behind their cover, she sent several blasts back towards the Predacon line. There was no break in fire from the other side. "This is ridiculous," she spat. Tapping the tip of one pincher against the side of her helm she keyed on her internal commlink. "Hey! Dinobot! Rat! Where are you two? We're getting hammered over here! If it's not too much trouble a little backup would be nice."

There was a long moment of staticky silence before an answering click sounded from the other side of the line. "_Rattrap here_," the spy's voice called back. "_Sorry, but yer just gonna have ta sit tight fer awhile. Airazor an' I kinda have our hands full at da moment_…"

"Then where's Dinobot?" Blackarachnia yelled as something exploded directly on the other side of her cover. "She's supposed to be in charge of this entire operation."

There was a long, heavy pause from the other side of the link. "_I don't know_…" the spy finally said. "_I saw her fightin' Talon earlier, but Scissor Hands attacked me not long after that. I haven' heard or seen anything ov Choppa'face since. I think she might be hurt_…"

Beside her, Silverbolt and Tigatron exchanged worried looks.

"Great…" Blackarachnia scowled. Of all of the 'bots on Primal's crew Dinobot was the only one she trusted in a fight, and what did the scaly femme go and do but end up going MIA when they needed her the most.

"_Listen_," Rattrap went on, "_Dis bomb is set ta blow in a couple ov minutes. I can't stop da countdown. Airazor an' I are tryin' ta drag it as far away from dis energon line as we can, but you'z guys might wanna start runnin' fer da hills 'cause it's gonna be da lightshow ov a lifetime when it goes._"

Blackarachnia felt a cold chill run along her circuits as she hesitantly said back into the link, "Understood." As she tapped her commlink off she glanced at Silverbolt and Tigatron. The three Maximals stared at each other for several moments of uncertainty - the sound of enemy fire the only thing to break the silence - before all three of them simultaneously turned and ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction of Megatron and his men.

* * *

"What is this?" Megatron growled several moments later. "The Maximals have stopped returning fire."

"They fear you, Royalty, and cower before your glory," Inferno proudly announced from his side.

Megatron scowled. "No…" he murmured doubtfully and ceased fire. Terrorsaur and Inferno both followed suit. A ringing silence followed in the wake of the sudden cessation of gunfire. No Maximals appeared on the other side of the rocks to take advantage of the opening. Megatron stormed forward and looked over the edge of scorched rock. "Where are there?" he thundered. With one angry swing of his fusion cannon he knocked out a sizable chunk of rock from the Maximals' former hiding place. Terrorsaur and Inferno both cowered back from him. Quickstrike remained motionless where he lay on the ground.

"My Lord," a new voice said as Talon appeared seemingly out of nowhere beside him. "The Maximals and their reinforcements are retreating."

Megatron startled slightly at the suddenness of her appearance. Let no one say she didn't possess her predecessor's speed and hunting stealth. As the warlord glanced at her with an annoyed scowl, however, any reprimand he might have given was momentarily forgotten at the sight of half-dried gore covering Talon's frame. "What happened to you?" he demanded with a raised optic ridge.

Talon returned his look with a malicious smirk. "Let's just say Dinobot has paid for the disrespect which she showed you…" was her cryptic answer.

Megatron stared at the transmetal femme for a long moment before a grin slowly spread across his facial plates. "I knew you would prove yourself a valuable asset to me," he said.

Talon visibly preened at the compliment. "I live only to serve you," she said with a bow.

Megatron smirked. Oh yes… In less than a few short hours, Talon had proved herself more valuable to him than all his other servants combined. With her by his side, his overthrow of Cybertron would be quick work. Why he hadn't thought of making a transmetal clone of the Maximal warrioress earlier he didn't know…

"The Maximals are retreating, my Lord," Talon said as she straightened once again to look at him. "The bomb is also set to explode. The control panel was damaged in a firefight and is now beyond repair. There is no way for them to stop it from detonating now."

"Excellent," Megatron crooned. Everything was coming together so much more smoothly than he anticipated. It was almost surreal to savor the sweet, sweet taste of victory with so few complications. Turning to his other two servants he called, "Terrorsaur, Inferno! Our work here is done. Grab that worthless fuzor, Quickstrike, and return to base."

"Yes, Royalty!" Inferno called, and stooped down to yank Quickstrike off the ground. With a screechy cry, Terrorsaur transformed and took to the air.

Buoyed on an unfamiliar cloud of triumph, Megatron turned to the blood-stained femme. "Come," he said, reaching out with a grin to press one hand to the small of Talon's back. "You've pleased me beyond all measure today. Your loyalty will be rewarded when we return to base."

Talon beamed under his attention. "The honor of sharing in your victory is my own reward, my Lord."

Megatron grinned even wider. Oh yes… Talon was proving to be a much more valuable asset to him than her stubborn, Maximal-loving half ever could have.

* * *

"Do you think this is far enough?" Airazor panted beside Rattrap as she and spy strained to drag the quarter-ton bomb across the rocky ground. So far through an extreme exertion of strength and willpower the two had managed to pull the explosive several dozen meters from the edge of the energon vein.

Rattrap paused and glanced back along the torn track of earth they'd left in their wake. Condensation soaked both his and Airazor's brows. He panted heavily for air in an effort to cool his overtaxed engines, but it didn't seem to be doing him any noticeable good. All the cables in his shoulders and arms felt like they'd been boiled down to low-grade rubber. His entire body shook with exhaustion and an ever growing sense of impending doom. He glanced at the digital timer. It read "2:49" in it's slowed, incorrect estimation of time.

"It's gonna hafta be," he said. "If we wanna get out of dis thing's blast radius, we're gonna hafta beat a hasty retreat now. We're just gonna hafta hope an' pray dis is far enough ta keep Optimus an' da others from gettin' blown ta pieces."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Airazor said. With a small hop, she leapt into the air while simultaneously transforming to beast-mode. With a throaty call, she shot into the sky. Rattrap was not far behind and transformed into his beast-mode's wheeled version. With a loud rev of his engines, the spy sped away in a billowy cloud of dust. His wheels barely seemed to touch the ground they turned so fast in his panicked dash. Above him, Airazor's wings frantically beat the air. As Rattrap maneuvered around small rocks and other obstacles in his path, he sent a silent prayer to Primus they weren't cutting it too close. Although much of this particular bomb's destructive power came from its ability to burrow deep underground when dropped from a high altitude, it nevertheless still posed great danger when detonated on the surface. Instead of it's blastwave being directed out into the surrounding bedrock if it was being detonated within a setting it'd been originally designed for, it would instead radiate out across the surface and pulverized anything ground level in its path. Even if he and Airazor managed to get several miles away before it exploded, Rattrap still worried if they could properly think of themselves as safe.

The spy's worried thoughts, however, were interrupted by Airazor's voice crackling over the commlink. "_Rattrap! I think I see Dinobot!_"

Rattrap's spark gave a painful twinge. He'd momentarily forgotten about the missing warrioress in his hurried dash to take care of the bomb. "Where?" he demanded.

The flier banked hard to the right above him. "_This way_," she called. Veering northeast, the spy's wheels skid in the loose dirt before accelerating after the hawk. Within moments, Rattrap sped around the corner of a small grouping of boulders and caught sight of the downed warrioress himself. From what he could tell from a distance, the raptor lay on her side seemingly offline. With an extra burst of speed he transformed to robot mode without even slowing and jogged the last few yards separating him from Dinobot. By the time he reached her, Airazor had already dropped out of the sky and knelt down on Dinobot's other side.

"Oh Primus…" she whispered as he came up to them.

Dropping to his knees beside the warrioress he saw for himself what had wrangled such an exclamation from the female flier. To say Dinobot was a shredded mess would have been a gross understatement. Half-dried energon caked her entire body and soaked the ground beneath her in a crusty layer of purple. Countless cuts and slash marks crisscrossed her armor as though she'd just emerged from the other side of a giant cheese grater. Some of them were so deep he could actually seem the faint gleam of Dinobot's skeletal frame. Between the warrioress's fingers which were weakly pressed to the base of her breastplate, Rattrap saw four perfect puncture holes. Energon seeped from their jagged edges with each rattling intake the warrioress took. Rattrap quickly pressed his hand down overtop Dinobot's own over the bleeding stab wounds.

"Dinobot! Hey, Lizard Lips!" Rattrap called as he reached out with his other hand and frantically shook Dinobot's shoulder. "Online yer optics an' look at me!" He was sickened by the realization there was barely anywhere he could touch her that wasn't covered in Dinobot's own fluids or sliced open by some weeping gash or cut.

A watery groan of pain answered him as the warrioress weakly brightened her optics. "Vermin..?" she coughed.

"Aw, man, Choppa'face, wha' da heck happened ta ya?"

Dinobot's optics flicked several times as though struggling to focus on Airazor and Rattrap's faces. "Talon…" she murmured as though that single named should explain everything. "She was stronger than I anticipated..."

Rattrap and Airzor shared a panicked look. "Rattrap, we have to get her out of here," Airazor said in a numbed voice of horror. "We only have a few more minutes before that bomb goes off, but I'm afraid to move Dinobot like this."

"No…" Dinobot murmured where she lay between them. "Leave me… I was defeated in battle and must accept my fate with honor."

"Like hell you will!" Rattrap snarled in mounting panic. "Unless ya have anything useful ta say just shut yer trap an' let us figure out how ta save yer scaly hide."

Silence descended over the group as the spy racked his processor for what to do. There was no way they could stay where they were; they were still too close to the explosive to hope for any chance of survival. But just as Airazor had said, the possibility of causing more damage to Dinobot by moving her was extremely high. She could bleed to death before they even made it a hundred feet.

"I can' believe I'm doin' this, but desperate times call fer desperate measures," he murmured as he reached for the storage compartment on his right forearm. "Here," he motioned to Airazor as he removed his hand from overtop Dinobot's chest. "Keep pressure on these stab wounds or she's gonna bleed out before I can patch Ginzu Finger's handiwork."

"Rodent, what are you-?" Dinobot gurgled beside him.

"I told'ja ta can it, Bronto-brains!" he snapped. "Dis ain't gonna be pretty but it should keep ya from goin' offline before we get'cha back ta base. Or at least until dat bomb goes off…" From his arm's subspace compartment he withdrew a small roll of black electrical tape. As Dinobot and Airazor watched with dawning realization, Rattrap tore off a length of tape between his teeth and wound it tight around Dinobot's midsection over the worse of her wounds.

"Rattrap, you're a genius," Airazor said.

Dinobot, meanwhile, offlined her optics and grit her teeth to keep from crying out as he applied another coil of tape around her chest. Rattrap inwardly winced with sympathy. He could only imagine what pain Dinobot was going through even though the warrioress refused to even whimper in discomfort.

"There," he said when he placed a final layer of field dressings over a deep gash mark bisecting Dinobot's shoulder plate. "Dat should hold."

"Can you move?" Airazor asked as she and Rattrap helped ease Dinobot into sitting position.

The warrioress swayed between them but visibly forced herself to focus on nothing but the task at hand. She tried to pull her legs underneath her to stand, but almost immediately collapsed back to the ground. "No…" she ground between grit teeth.

Rattrap and Airazor shared another panicked look. They were steadily running out of time…

"I don't think I'd be able to carry her," Airazor said. "She's too heavy for me."

"Leave me," Dinobot once more insisted.

Rattrap shook his head. As opposed to dying as he was, there was no way he was just going to leave the warrioress. "No," he said and leapt to his feet with sudden inspiration. "Beast mode!" he yelled, and in a flurry of shifting limbs he transformed into his wheeled alt-mode. Sidling up close beside the warrioress he nudged her in the thigh with his shoulder. "Comm'on, get on," he urged.

Dinobot stared at him incredulously. "What?" she growled.

"I said get on! I'll carry ya."

Despite severe fluid loss and impending stasis lock, the warrioress still managed to shoot Rattrap a look of utter disgust. "You must be kidding me…"

"I ain't! Now get _on!_"

With Airazor's help, Dinobot shifted herself onto Rattrap's back. Rattrap's suspensions dipped low under the warrioress's weight. "Okay, hold on tight," he said as he revved his engines. "'Cause we're gonna hafta book it fast if we want ta live ta see another day."

Dinobot did not respond except to weakly clutch the back of his shoulder rims, her mutilated body folded uncomfortably overtop him. He could only imagine what the two of them must look like at the moment - like a full grown adult perched on top a sparkling's toy car. Punching all four cylinders, Rattrap jolted away. Dinobot's grip tightened as he gained full speed. Rattrap tried not to hit any potholes or large debris in his frantic dash, but each time he was unable to he felt Dinobot tense sharply above him. Several times he actually heard her suck in a strangled gasp between her teeth. He wanted to slow, to not cause her so much pain, but at the moment his main concern was getting them both to a safe distance. He forced his wheels to spin faster.

The seconds seemed to tick by with increasing speed. In the back of his processor he could almost picture the bomb's timer rapidly blinking down to zero. By his estimations, they still had a minute to go. If he could just-

A deafening boom sounded behind them.

A blinding flash of light momentarily enveloped them before a cataclysmic force thumped the air. Even with Dinobot weighting him down Rattrap felt his rear wheels momentarily lifted off the ground by the blast. He fishtailed wildly in the loose gravel when he dropped back down a moment later. For one terrifying second he was sure he was going to wipeout but somehow managed to straighten himself out and keep going. Dinobot clutched him tighter, her claws digging painfully into his shoulder rims. He ignored the pain though. If anything he pushed himself faster. Behind him a giant plume of dirt and smoke slowly blossomed from the ground up into the stratosphere.

"_Rattrap! Are you and Dinobot alright?" _Airazor's voice squawked over the commlink.

"We're fine," he called back. "Wha' 'bout you?"

"_I'm alright_," was her strained reply. "_But I'm not sure about Tigatron or Blackarachnia and Silverbolt._" Rattrap could hear the subdued worry in the flier's voice. _"I don't know if any of them got away in time… I'm going to circle back and see if I can find them. They may need help."_

"Fine," Rattrap said. "But I'm gonna go on ahead. I need ta get Choppa'face back ta base as soon as possible. Assuming there's still a base left…"

"_Acknowledged." _And with that the commlink went dead.

"Ya still with me, Lizard Lips?" Rattrap called back over his shoulder.

"Unfortunately…" Dinobot weakly growled between her teeth. Out of the corner of his optic Rattrap noticed the dull color of the warrioress's face. Despite his field dressings she was still losing fluids fast. He could feel the growing stickiness between them. He had to hurry.

"Hold on," he said and put on an extra burst of speed.

Just as time had seemed to shorten with the approaching detonation of the bomb, it seemed to stretch out as he sped across the many miles separating him and Dinobot and the nearest CR chamber. As the miles sped past in a chaotic blur of browns, greens and grays Rattrap felt the warrioress's hold grow increasingly weaker and weaker on his shoulders.

"Comm'on, Choppa'face, stay wit' me. We're almost der," he begged as the open fields began to shift into the rocky hills and valleys of Maximal territory. "Please still be der, please still be der," he chanted under his vents as he turned the last corner to the Maximal ship. If the Axalon wasn't there he didn't know what he was going to do. As horrible as it was to admit, Optimus, Cheetor and Rhinox did not factor highly into his panicked thoughts. The only things Rattrap could focus on was the bleeding femme on his back and the ship's emergency repair tanks.

Primus must have heard his pleas and decided to smile upon him because as Rattrap sped around the last hill he spotted the Axalon sitting just the way he'd left it earlier that morning: unharmed and still in one piece.

Optimus and the others must have spotted his and Dinobot's approach because he didn't have to stop to wait for Sentinal to acknowledge him. Without wasting a nano-klick, he sped towards ship's main lifts. It was only then as both Optimus and Rhinox appeared to help him with his injured cargo that Dinobot seemed to finally reach the end of her limits and slumped off his back unconscious to the ground…

To be Continued…

Please review!


	5. Author Announcement

Chapter five posted as separate entry. New chapter can be found on my author's profile page. Why? I have my reasons...

-LAXgirl


	6. Tough Choices

Super long chapter. The proverbial slag is about to hit the fan.

**Chapter Seven: Tough Choices**

Megatron sat in the command chair of the Darksyde, darkly surveying the activities of those around him. He leaned heavily to one side in his seat with one elbow propped overtop the chair arm. Using his bent arm as a supportive pillar, he'd tucked his fist underneath his chin to prop his head up on. The pose exuded a look that was at the same time casual and unexplainably intimidating. Perhaps the intimidating factor came more from the seething look of anger on his facial plates, but Megatron was in no mood to try and dissect the intricacies of his own body language at the moment.

Oh, he had no doubt his expression betrayed some of the broiling anger currently burning his insides like acidic bile. That would certainly explain the very obvious attempts his minions were making of trying to look busy at their work stations. No one had dared approach him since he'd returned to the Darksyde the previous evening and received a status report of the ship's goings on since he'd left more than three days before. He knew he'd been away awhile - one day spent moving the necessary equipment to the northern hills and then waiting for the approaching electrical storm to power the final step of Talon's creation; one day excavating the last few dozen feet of dirt and rock from the energon vein that snaked under the Maximal's base; and then the final day readying the bomb to blow Optimus Primal and his pathetic crew straight into the Wall of Allsparks. At no time in the interim had he returned to base.

So it was a complete blow to return to the Darksyde late the night before - walking on proverbial clouds and savoring the almost unfamiliar taste of victory - only to find that not only had the bomb failed to ignite the energon vein which he'd just had his men spend the last month and a half digging out; but also that while he'd been gone preparing the final steps of Talon's creations, the transmetal's femme's genetic originator herself had single-handedly snuck aboard the Darksyde and stolen both gold disks from his private quarters.

'Livid_' _was a word not even close to describing how he'd reacted to that bit of news. 'Murderously apocalyptic' was closer to the sentiment, but still not quite enough. If Waspinator hadn't fled from him when he had after delivering that report Megatron would have probably sent the flier to the CR tank for a three-week long stay in pieces. How had Dinobot gotten past the base's outer defenses? They were foolproof! Or at least so he had thought…

And then! To put the proverbial fresh coat of wax on that paint job, not only did the treacherous she-raptor sneak into his private quarters and steal his disks but she'd also destroyed all backup files he'd made of them!

Off to his right Talon sat at a computer terminal, hunched over the keyboard. The tips of her finger blades moved rapidly across the board and made harsh little clicking sounds against the keys. Her single optic stared at the scrolling list of codes on the screen, her optic ridges furrowed together in deep concentration. She'd been trying to salvage any remaining data tracks from his personal archives for the last two hours. Despite the warlord's deepening fury for his ex-lieutenant's stealth strike against him, he still could not help but admire the look of intense concentration molding the familiar contours of her clone's face.

Although she'd been online for little longer than a full day Talon had already proven herself to be a valuable asset to the Predacon cause. Just like her predecessor, Talon was a skilled and deadly warrior. Ruthless, swift and cunning she was the veritable terror of the battlefield. Her fluid-stained finger blades had been testament enough of that. Megatron didn't know if Dinobot was still alive or not after her clash with Talon and then the succeeding explosion. But if she was then it was surely a defeat she would not soon forget, if ever.

In some ways, it was almost unnerving just how alike Talon and Dinobot were. That was to be expected, of course, considering Talon was a genetic duplicate of the Maximal traitor. But still… At times Megatron was forcibly taken aback by just how similar the two of them really were. It was kind of scary to think how much of a 'bot's personality and physical mannerisms were genetically encoded. The way Talon walked. The way she stood with her shoulders firmly squared. The way only the left side of her lips hitched up from her teeth whenever she sneered or smirked. Even the way she sat with her head tilted slightly to the right as she scrutinized the computer screen in front of her and furiously typed at the keyboard. All those mannerisms were Dinobot's and Dinobot's alone.

Yet while the transmetal femme resembled her predecessor in so many ways, she was also different in several other…

Megatron had created Talon with all the intentions of bringing her online as a loyal servant to him and no one else, but Talon was proving to be not quite what he'd originally imagined. She was loyal, yes. Devoutly so. After their battle with the Maximals yesterday Megatron had no doubt Talon would carry out his orders to perfection without any questions or hesitation.

But therein lay the problem Megatron had not foreseen: Talon was almost _too _loyal. He'd created her with all the intentions of making a clone that was a physical duplicate of his ex-lieutenant with all of Dinobot's strengths and none of her weaknesses. But in doing so, he'd made Talon so submissive she didn't even try to challenge his commands or usurp power for herself like Dinobot had always done. She only ever did as she was told and looked to him afterwards for praise like a trained puppy. In making his ideal servant he had unwittingly left out the single element that had made Dinobot like such an irresistible drug to him: the challenge of the chase and conquest. While Megatron had no doubt Talon would willingly give herself to him should he order any sexual pleasures from her, any carnal desire he might have had for the transmetal femme was lost in her cloying eagerness to please. She presented him no challenge, no worthy fight. Talon might as well have been the female clone of Inferno for how eagerly she strove to obey.

Speaking of which…

Megatron's optics slowly shifted from Talon towards the fire ant in question. Inferno stood at attention in his usual place beside him, a half-step behind him to his right. Despite his proud, protective stance Inferno seemed distracted. Megatron had noticed it not long after they'd returned to the Darksyde the night before. Although the fire ant kept to his usual habits there was no denying there was something odd going on with him. Well, _odder_ in any case… Whenever Talon was nearby (which was almost always) Inferno would stiffen and stand at even straighter attention and hold his head just a little bit higher as though preparing for some kind of inspection. If Megatron did not demand the fire ant's immediate presence Inferno seemed to always somehow find his way to Talon's side, like an unwanted shadow. The first time Talon had noticed him standing there had been rather amusing if only for the brief entertainment of seeing the femme scare Inferno off with nothing more than a dangerous snarl. Ever since Inferno had kept a more respectful distance from her but every so often Megatron would catch him staring in the female raptor's direction just like he was now. Although Megatron had placed no immediate claims on Talon as his personal consort, the warlord did not like the idea of any of the other mechs of his crew staring at her. She was his! Whether he'd officially claimed her for himself or not. It was only as time progressed that he'd come to slowly realize Inferno's intentions towards Talon were not what he'd originally suspected. There was nothing sexual about his interest in her. But what that interest really was, he still didn't know for sure…

"My Lord," Talon's voice brought Megatron out of his thoughts back to the present. The transmetal femme swiveled around in her seat to look at him. Beside him, Inferno stiffened sharply to attention.

"What is it? Have you managed to recover something?" Megatron demanded.

Talon shook her helm. "Forgive me, my Lord, but all the data tracks in your personal archives were completely destroyed. There is no way for me to salvage them. Dinobot made sure to be extremely thorough."

Megatron grit his dentals with a suppressed growl. Balling one hand into a fist, he brought it down against the arm of his chair with an echoing _clang_. Although he didn't look down to inspect the damage, he could feel the fist-sized dent now warping the arm of his command chair.

"That treacherous raptor…" he snarled. "Not only did Dinobot steal my disks, but she's made it impossible for me to advance to the next stage of my plans without some kind of physical data on them."

"The traitor will burn for her attack against you, my Liege!" Inferno proclaimed from his side. "I will see to it myself."

Megatron ignored him. His thoughts were too distracted by a deepening sense of hopelessness and defeat to pay the sycophantic ant much attention. Without the golden disks or any record of their markings there was no way for him to test the full magnitude of their power. Without them there was no way for him to precede forward…

"My Lord," Talon tentatively spoke up. "Perhaps I might be able to help."

Megatron's head shot up to look at her. "What are you talking about?"

The transmetal femme got to her pedes and came to stand in front of him. "Dinobot no doubt has hidden the disks away somewhere. Probably from the other Maximals as well. It is what I would have done until I knew the full scope of their power."

Megatron stared at Talon, his interest piqued. "Is that so?" he murmured, intrigued.

"Although I cannot say with certainty where Dinobot might have hidden them, I can think of several places within a respectable distance of the Maximal ship that I would have deemed appropriate hiding places myself. Although we do not share the same ideologies, you have made me a perfect clone of Dinobot. I understand her way of thinking and her system of approach. Given enough time, I can use that knowledge to help locate the disks and return them to you."

Megatron sat for a long moment of silence digesting this intriguing bit of information. Perhaps Talon would prove herself to be an even bigger asset to him than he first imagined. Although Talon was not Dinobot, she was certainly similar enough to the Maximal warrioress to be a grave liability to the Maximals and their number one fighter.

"Very well," Megatron nodded, the idea becoming more and more appealing the more he thought about Talon's suggestion. It made perfect sense. Who better to send and hunt down his missing disks than the clone of the very one who'd stolen them from him? "You have my permission to do so. But I want them found and brought back to me as soon as possible."

"Yes, my Lord," Talon bowed.

"Royalty," Inferno interjected, "please allow me the honor of accompanying the Qu-… I mean, the Lady on this mission. For the good of the colony I will help her bring that traitor to justice!"

Neither Talon nor Megatron missed the fire ant's near-slip and both stared at him with raised optic ridges.

So that's why Inferno had been so glitchy around Talon… Because of her gender and quick assertion of power on the battlefield, Inferno had adopted Talon in his mind as a sort of co-ruler of their "colony." Megatron wasn't sure how much he approved of this, but seeing as how he still seemed to hold the higher position of authority in Inferno's warped hierarchy he chose for the moment to overlook his soldier's eccentricities.

"No," Talon said before Megatron could speak, shaking her helm. "I want to do this myself. Dinobot is _my_ genetic originator, and it should be _I_ who finishes her off in battle."

Megatron nodded approvingly. "Very well. Do what you need to do to get those disks back. But do so quickly. I want them back in my control as soon as possible."

Talon dipped her head to him. "Of course, my Lord. I will not fail you." And as she stood straight again, Megatron saw the determined gleam of bloodlust in her optic and had no doubt in his processor she would do just that…

* * *

Dinobot moved swiftly through the leafy underbrush of the forest. The only sound to betray her movements was the soft _thump-thump_ of her taloned feet against the dirt. Her beast-mode's dark stripes blended perfectly into the shadowy darkness of the forest around her. In the murky twilight she might have appeared to any passing creature as nothing more than a ghostly figure darting between the trees. A full moon hung high overhead like a swollen ball of pale light. Several hundred feet in front of her rose a craggy protrusion of rocks as though they'd been pushed through the earth's crust from underneath by some titanic god of the underworld. Weaving smoothly through the trees like a fish navigating a bolder-strewn stream, Dinobot headed straight for the jagged rise.

It had been almost two weeks since her infiltration of the Predacon base and theft of the golden disks. Unfortunately, because of Megatron's latest attack immediately after, Primal had decided to step up their usual security protocols and arrange new patrol patterns that extended miles outside of their old ones. Dinobot had not had a chance to return to the disks' hiding place until tonight under the guise of a long-range patrol to the south.

Dinobot growled softly through her teeth as she jogged the last few yards separating her from the base of the rocky protrusion. Even though two weeks had passed since her clash with Megatron and her transmetal clone, she still seethed with memories of her defeat. Just as Rattrap had said, no one seemed to blame her for the disaster that had become her first time in command, but that hadn't stopped Dinobot from dissecting the battle from every conceivable viewpoint to see where she had gone wrong so that she might prevent herself from making the same mistake again in the future. She burned for the chance to engage Talon again in battle and regain her honor.

As she finally came to the bottom of the hill, Dinobot converted from beast-mode into her bi-pedal form. She paused a moment to let her intakes stabilize before she started the climb up. Although it had been a short sprint through the forest to this spot her systems were running a little hard. Usually she could travel for miles at a brisk jog without breaking into labored intakes, but recently she'd begun to notice a slight but noticeable drop in her endurance. She didn't quite know what to make of it. Ever since her fight with Talon she'd felt dogged by an almost constant sense of mild fatigue no matter how many hours of recharge she got or how little she pushed herself during combat practice. Her internal systems seemed to refuse to work at maximum capacity. Everything inside her just felt… off.

Which didn't make any sense. The CR chamber had fully repaired her after her battle with Talon as far as she knew. Perhaps she was still recovering from some internal damage the CR chamber hadn't been able to detect. Considering how close Talon's blades had come to ripping out the bottom of her spark chamber that wasn't too difficult to believe. But CR chambers rarely left unrepaired injuries. It just didn't make any sense…

Pushing these frustrating thoughts away to be dealt with at a later time, Dinobot turned her attention back to the task at hand. She wanted to check the disks and take at least one of them back to the ship with her to examine in closer detail. She still had yet to decide what she was going to do with them or how she was going to explain them to Optimus. For better or worse he was her commander and the Maximals her faction now. Her loyalty was with them but old habits died hard and she wanted to be sure of the disks' importance before she just handed them over to someone else. In Predacon society, one's loyalty was always first and foremost to oneself. In order to survive it had to be.

Navigating the rocky path, Dinobot quickly made her way towards the summit. The top of the hill had been shaved level - probably by some primordial earthquake or natural disaster hundreds or thousands of years ago. It didn't matter when it had happened in any case. All that Dinobot cared about was the collection of crate-sized boulders on the far side of the hill. Going directly to the second largest one from the right, she knelt down beside it and slipped her claws underneath its edge. With a mighty pull, she lifted the boulder and tipped it up and over from the two golden disks tucked underneath. She picked one up and gently brushed away the clinging clumps of dirt and dead organic matter from it. The disk shined brightly in the moonlight. It's alien hieroglyphs seemed somehow more strange and otherworldly as she studied them by moonlight alone in this desolate area of primitive Earth. It made the significance of their existence somehow more poignant and mysterious.

"I was wondering when you were finally going to lead me to them," a voice said behind her.

Every cable in Dinobot stiffened as she spun around towards the sound. So startled by the unexpected voice it took Dinobot's neural processes several klicks to catch up with the present. The pump of her fuel lines thundered in her audios.

On the far side of the hill's overlook a milky-white figure slowly separated itself from the surrounding stand of rocks and stepped into the open. Moonlight spilled over the figure's harsh curves and contours, making its bony frame somehow even more ghastly than if it had been seen in the warm light of day. The skeletal creature grinned at her, its demonic red eyes piercing the night like two points of burning hellfire.

Dinobot tensed, her body dropping into a low fighting stance. "Talon," she snarled.

The skeletal raptor grinned. With a quick command, the transmetal femme transformed to her more familiar robot mode. "Dinobot," she replied. Moonlight reflected off the edges of her finger blades in sharp little flashes.

Dinobot was momentarily at a loss for what to make of her clone's appearance. She hadn't heard any kind of approach, nor detected any other spark-signatures in the area while heading here. "What are you doing here," Dinobot said with a menacing growl. Dropping even lower into her stance, she turned her body so that it stood as a physical barrier between Talon and the disk still on the ground behind her.

Talon's optic dropped to stare at the golden object in Dinobot's hand. "I think you already know what I came here for," she said with a smirk. "Lord Megatron wants those disks you stole from him back. He sent me to retrieve them. I have been following and observing you from a distance every time you've left the Maximals' base for the last two weeks hoping you would lead me to their hiding spot. I was just not expecting you to take quite this long."

The Maximal warrioress stiffened. Talon had been following her? How was it this femme continued to sneak up on her or follow her without her knowing? Was it because of the other femme's artificial spark that she was unable to sense it's presence, or was it because of something else?

In any case, now was not the time to ponder such things. Not when Talon stood right there in front of her with every intention of stealing the golden disks back from her.

"Forgive me if I do not simply hand these over to you," Dinobot said as she slowly unsheathed her sword. Without taking her optics off of her opponent Dinobot took the disk she held and tucked it away in the subspace compartment on her back. She would have to leave its mate where it lay on the ground for now. She couldn't risk trying to fight Talon with the weight of both disks slowing her speed and restricting her range of motion.

Talon grinned, her sharpened dentals flashing in the moonlight. She flexed her finger blades threateningly at Dinobot. "I would have expected nothing less from you, sister. In fact, I was hoping for a rematch after our last encounter. I did not like where I had to leave things off last time, but claiming victory when one's opponent is already down and no longer a threat holds no true sense of triumph. It would have been dishonorable to finish you off while you lay there writhing on the ground like a gutted fish."

Dinobot snarled, her chest plate rattling against her substructure. "Foul creature…" she hissed as both she and Talon began to slowly circle each other - shoulders hunched, bodies low and weapons poised. "I will send you back to Megatron in pieces."

"You do not seem to remember our last battle well," Talon noted. "Because at no point during it do I recall you coming anywhere close to defeating me. In fact, I suspect this battle will end much the same way. Only this time you will not be alive to face me again afterwards."

Dinobot did not reply. Instead, with a fearsome howl she launched herself at her transmetal clone. Finger blades met sword in a thunderous clash. Spark leapt between the two sharpened surfaced. Twisting, Dinobot lashed one foot out, catching Talon in the side with her toe claw and leaving a long gash of shimmery purple in its wake beneath her breastplate.

The Maximal warrioress grinned. First blood was hers…

Ignoring the wound, Talon lunged at Dinobot. She swiped one hand at Dinobot's midsection but the warrioress twisted her body out of its path to the side. Talon snarled and lunged at her again, this time aiming for her head. Dinobot dodged again, but not without feeling the breeze of sharpened metal passing uncomfortably close to her cheek.

Talon growled with mounting frustration. As Dinobot came in for an offensive strike the transmetal femme dropped low and swung her tail in a circle, trying to take Dinobot's feet out from under her at the ankles. The Maximal warrioress leapt backward out of range. Standing straight again, Talon rounded on Dinobot and sent a beam of red energy shooting from her external eye-laser. The shot caught Dinobot in the left shoulder with a sizzling hiss. The warrioress bit back a cry of pain and retaliated with series of rapid laser fire from her own optics.

Talon ducked to the side, her movements almost faster than Dinobot's aim. Like a ghostly phantom, she bounded across the rocky hilltop dodging laser fire. Veering towards a rocky protrusion to Dinobot's right, the femme leapt at the rock face and used it to springboard back in Dinobot's direction. Unable to aim at a target suddenly so close to her, Dinobot broke off fire and rose her sword in defense just in time to meet the set of razor-sharp claws speeding towards her face. The two femmes clashed with a deafening screech of metal. For a moment it became a contest of raw strength as the two pushed against each other, evenly matched.

"You will not defeat me again," Dinobot snarled into Talon's face across their crossed blades.

"I would not be so quick to say that," Talon growled back, and savagely lashed her other hand out at Dinobot.

The Maximal warrioress had suspected Talon would try such a move and threw herself backwards. Unfortunately, she was not quite fast enough and grit back a cry as the tip of Talon's one claw sliced through the armor plating of her upper right arm and left a shallow cut in its wake.

The two broke apart and stood at a distance glaring at each other. Both were panting heavily, their superstructures painted with streaks of spilt mech-fluid.

"You have improved since our last meeting," Talon noted. Her optic never straying from Dinobot's, she raised her hand to her mouth. Running her glossa slowly along the length of her flinger blade, she licked it clean of Dinobot's mech-fluid. "Unfortunately, it will not be enough to save you in the end. Lord Megatron will reward me well when I bring the gold disks and your severed head back to him." She smirked and flexed her now cleaned finger blades at Dinobot.

Dinobot suppressed a shiver of revulsion. "You dedication to Megatron is disgusting. He must have programmed that into you because I was never like that even when I still believed in his cause."

Talon's optic narrowed into a fine slit of red, her lips pulling back from her dentals in a fearsome snarl. "It is _you_, dear sister, who are disgusting. I can smell that Maximal rodent's stench all over you." Talon looked Dinobot up and down, her facial plates twisting into a sneer. "Tell me, do you actually enjoy his company or are you only using him to worm your way deeper into the Maximals' ranks? Do you retract your interface panel for him each night and enjoy the feel of that tiny weakling inside of you. Do you whisper words like 'love' or 'affection' into his audio and recite lines of poetry to him and actually mean them?"

"_Shut up!_" Dinobot snarled, her optics flashing green with anger. The edges of her visual readout momentarily crackled with blood-red static. She was gripping the handle of her sword so tightly she could feel the plating of her palm slowly warping to the contours of its sides. "Do not speak about my interactions with him as though you actually understand anything about us!"

Talon eyed Dinobot for a long moment of silence, her face an expression of dawning realization. "You really do care for him…" she murmured as though she hadn't even considered this possibility before now. Her lips twisted into a wicked grin. "Perhaps I will not bring Lord Megatron your head after all. Instead I will leave it staked on your own sword outside the Maximals' ship where your little lover can find it."

Dinobot snarled. If her superstructure had had any heckles, they would have been standing straight up on the back of her neck right now.

Talon snorted at the look of murderous rage on the other femme's face. "You must admit it's a ridiculously vile concept: Maximal and Predacon lovers? In what universe could a match like that ever be acceptable? It is dishonorable enough that you turned your back on your heritage and joined the Maximals, but to go and willingly warm one of their berths for nothing more than your own pleasure and deluded affections is beyond reprehensible. Have you no sense of honor? If we were back on Cybertron you would be deactivated for such impropriety. You would be a disgrace to your family's honor - an outcast, a leper, a _traitor _in every sense of the word. To think Lord Megatron offered you everything even after you turned your back on him is a show of his magnanimity to your past treachery. But for you to throw his offer back in his face as if it were garbage - for a disgusting _rat!_ - is beyond comprehension! It is nothing less than reprehensible!"

"Do not tell me what my actions are when Megatron offered me nothing more than a future of gilded servitude," Dinobot snarled. "I would have been nothing more than a sexual slave to him and a weapon to be turned loose on his enemies whenever he saw fit. I would have never been seen as his equal or treated as a sentient being with any rights. I would have been forced to live only in service of hisneeds and desires with no thought or care on his part for my own. Tell me, is that the kind of future you want for yourself?"

Talon shook her head. "The words you use to describe the place you could have had at Lord Megatron's side are vulgar and crass - nothing more than a narrow-minded view of what you could have had. You have no idea what opportunity you've thrown away because of your stubborn pride."

"Perhaps," Dinobot said. "But there is no amount of wealth or power in this universe that would make me want to change any of the decisions I have made up unto this point."

Talon sneered. "So be it. But I will not make the same mistakes as you did by casting my lot in with those pathetic Maximals. I will prove myself a worthy disciple of Lord Megatron and earn the right to stand beside him in battle and share in his victory."

Dinobot's lips curled back in disgust. "As I've said before: you are a deluded fool - nothing more than a cheap replacement for what Megatron could not have himself. The fact that you still cannot see that and actual believe your own words is just a testament to your own stupidity and blind devotion to a lost cause."

"A cheap replacement, you say?" Talon growled, her body language growing dangerous as she glared at Dinobot through narrowed optic. "We shall see about that when I defeat you once and for all and take those disks back to Lord Megatron."

"I will rot in the fires of the Pit before I ever allow that to happen," Dinobot snarled, her battle stance dropping low to match Talon's.

The transmetal femme flexed both sets of finger blades at her. "That's exactly what I was hoping you would say, _sister_." Then, in a mirror images of each other, the two femmes threw themselves at the other. Dinobot did not think as she let the tide of battle sweep her up in its bloodlust and single-minded desire to inflict harm. Letting her warrior-programming and years of training guide her, Dinobot moved as if on autopilot: ducking, dodging, feigning, lunging in for attacks with skills that few other bots could boast to possessing. It was just a shame Talon possessed all the same skills that she did…

Dipping low under Talon's arm as she tried to bludgeon Dinobot's head off her shoulders, the Maximal warrioress lunged at her clone. Her sword stabbed forward and sank deep into Talon's lower side. With a sharp flick of her wrist the warrioress tore it free from Talon in a thick spray of fluids and proto-matter. Talon reared backwards, screaming in pain and fury as her hands flew down to clutch at the gapping wound now bisecting her torso. Silvery blue mech-fluid seeped between her fingers and trailed down the length of her stomach. It was a serious wound. One which would require at least several hours in a CR tank to repair.

"Give up and admit defeat," Dinobot snarled as she rounded on Talon, sword poised for another strike. She fought to keep a victorious grin from marring her facial plates. "You are damaged. You will only lose if you try to continue fighting in your condition. I should finish you off, but as you yourself said: it would be dishonorable to extinguish the spark of one who is no longer able to fight back."

The transmetal femme retreated several paces to put a safer distance between herself and Dinobot. She hunched where she stood, holding her side and glaring at Dinobot with unmitigated hate. But she did not protest Dinobot's assessment. To do so would have been a foolish attempt to deny reality.

"I admit you might have won this battle, sister," Talon said, slowly forcing herself to stand straight again despite her bleeding wound. "But you are still far from winning this war…"

Before Dinobot could react, Talon spun on her heels and dove to the side. It took Dinobot a moment to realize what her clone was doing, but when she did she felt every diode in her superstructure freeze with horror. At some point during their battle she and Talon had changed positions, placing Talon closer to the alien disk Dinobot had left laying on the ground. As the warrioress watched, Talon darted forward and snatched it triumphantly up in one hand.

"No!" Dinobot yelled.

The transmetal femme paused just long enough to turn and cast Dinobot a nasty grin. "I might not have been able to get both disks like Lord Megatron ordered, but one disk is better than none as the old saying goes. This minor setback will just have to assure it that you and I meet again in battle very soon…" Then, turning her back on the Maximal warrioress, she sped away down the hill's rocky embankment, the gold disk in her hand flashing brightly in the moonlight.

With a savage roar, Dinobot took off after Talon. Down the side of the hill and into the forest she chased the other femme. For an indeterminable number of minutes she chased Talon deep into the shadowy depths of the forest, always following the other's femme's silvery-white form as it wove back and forth between the trees. But as the chase began to drag on with no sign of end in sight, Dinobot felt her internal systems begin to strain and grow sluggish. With mounting frustration and rage Dinobot could do nothing more than watch as Talon steadily gained ground and retreated farther and farther away from her into the distance until she finally disappeared from sight.

Dinobot skid to a shaky halt, gasping for air and fuel lines pounding in her audios. Condensation dripped down the sides of her helm in giant rivulets. As she waited for her intakes to slow and her engine to cool the warrioress stared ahead into the inky maze of tree trunks, wistfully imagining she could still see Talon's retreating form somewhere in the distance. But in reality she knew the other femme was already long gone, along with the other golden disk.

Without realizing it, Dinobot's hands slowly curled into two shaking fists by her sides as anger and humiliation warred for dominance deep inside her spark. Then, unable to hold it in any longer, Dinobot tilted her head back and howled her frustration and rage to the indifferent white moon hanging high above her in the sky.

* * *

It was a long and humiliating trek back to base. Memories of Talon and her escape into the forest with the gold disk haunted Dinobot all the way back to the Axalon. It was even more embarrassing, however, when she returned to have to seek out Optimus Primal and admit her subterfuge of the last few weeks to him: first her stealing the gold disks from Megatron, then hiding them away from her Maximal comrades, and then her inability to get the one disk back from Talon. It had been probably the single-most embarrassing moment in her entire function to endure, but surprisingly not for the reasons she's originally prepared herself to face.

Oh, her facial plates had burned with mech-fluid as she'd stood there and admitted what she'd done to Optimus. But it was not the admission of defeat in and of itself that had cemented a deep-seated sense of failure in her, but rather the look of quiet disappointment in Optimus' optics as she'd confessed her misdeeds. Never had she been made to feel like a disobedient sparkling the way she had by Optimus' disapproving gaze. She'd all but fled his personal quarters once he'd questioned her at length and finally dismissed her. Optimus hadn't done anything to admonish or punish her or even voice his own personal feelings on the matter in any way, but Dinobot knew she'd let her commander down in a way she never thought would ever matter to her. It was going to be a long time, she knew, before she regained Primal's faith in her…

Head low and shoulders slumped, the Maximal warrioress slowly made her way through the Axalon to its main bridge. She was just glad it was so late at night when most of the rest of the crew was either already asleep or had retired to the privacy of their personal quarters. She wasn't in any mood to have to meet anyone else in the corridors and exchange menial banalities with them. Rattrap, luckily, wasn't expecting her back from patrol until later the next morning, so she didn't have to worry about facing him just yet. She could only imagine how _that_ conversation was going to play out when the time came…

Shaking these unpleasant thoughts away from her head, Dinobot made her way to the bridge. The command deck was completely deserted - the ship having been switched to automated systems for the night. The main computer beeped a greeting to her as it registered her presence on deck, but Dinobot ignored it. Her attention was focused solely on the two CR chambers on the far side of the room.

Ever since her first battle with Talon she'd felt off, as though something hadn't been properly repaired inside her. Everything from her fuel pumps to her combustion cylinders felt sluggish and refused to work at full capacity. She'd ignored it at first, assuming it was something minor her internal repair functions would eventually fix on their own. But after losing Talon in the forest because she'd been unable to keep pace with her Dinobot knew she couldn't pretend something wasn't wrong any longer. If she wanted to defeat Talon the next time they met on the battlefield, she had to find out was affecting her internal systems _now_.

Stepping up to the first CR chamber, Dinobot typed into its control panel an order for an all-systems diagnostic. The chamber's computer chirped happily in acknowledgement as Dinobot stepped inside and turned around to face out again. The door swung slowly close around her and sealed her in utter darkness. Dinobot felt a gentle pulse of EMP run through her to momentarily take her offline so the machine could run its scan without interference from her cognitive functions, and swiftly drifted offline…

Almost no time seemed to pass before Dinobot's internal systems rebooted and she came back online several minutes later. The doors hissed open and Dinobot groggily stepped out of the chamber. The short time she'd spent offline seemed to have brought all the lingering tiredness she'd felt for the last few weeks surging to the forefront of her processor like a tidal wave of fatigue. Dinobot growled softly under her vents and moved to the CR chamber's readout screen to get her results.

_There had better be a good reason my systems are running at such a substandard level, _she thought darkly to herself. She knew for a fact several days before her first fight with Talon Rhinox had done some minor recalibration work on the ship's CR chambers. If the burly engineer had messed anything up which had made the chambers in turn fail to properly repair her, she was going to make sure Rhinox would need a CR chamber himself once she was through with him…

Unfortunately, as Dinobot pulled up the results of her scan and read through them, all thoughts of retaliatory violence swiftly disappeared from her processor. For a moment she thought her optics might be malfunctioning. But the readout declared that they were perfectly fine and working at one hundred percent capacity. No, what came up in her scan was not a problem with her optics, but rather something situated much closer to her spark chamber.

Dinobot stared at the results, desperately willing the readout to somehow change or for some message box to pop up overtop it saying there had been some kind of internal error during the diagnostic and that the scan had to be redone for accurate results. But as the minutes ticked by with no such error message or change in the scan's findings, horrified realization slowly settled over Dinobot like a physical weight. She stood there staring at the screen in a numbed daze, feeling as though the world around her was slowly fracturing along its edges like a fragile piece of glass. There was a moment's pause as the information continued to work its way past her shock deeper and deeper into her neural processes. But then, as the full magnitude of the CR chamber's readout finally registered in the back of Dinobot's motherboard, the warrioress felt one last crack run across the fragile remains of her reality and send it shattering into a hundred-million little pieces…

* * *

Rattrap's engines revved as he sped up the Axalon's rear lift in beast-mode and into its main cargo bay. He'd just spent the majority of the day out on patrol, keeping watch for any Predacon activity along the Maximals' eastern border. He hadn't detected even a blip of any other energy signals on his scanners though, which was a complete disappointment seeing as how he would have paid good money at the moment for any excuse to shoot some unsuspecting Pred straight into next week. Ever since that morning his mind had been nothing more than a giant maelstrom of confused, conflicting emotions. And all because of a single bot…

Even now, hours after Optimus had briefed the rest of the crew about Dinobot's encounter with Talon the night before and the potential new danger looming over them, Rattrap still couldn't seem to come to terms with the idea that Dinobot - the femme he'd slowly come to see as his friend, confidant and lover - had hid such a dangerous secret from him and the rest of the crew. He'd trusted her! Had come to believe that even though she was of Predacon descent that she had proven herself to be above such underhanded deceit. He thought Dinobot had been acting somewhat strange the last few weeks, but had written it off as the product of an overactive, naturally suspicious imagination on his part. And now he knew exactly why she'd seemed so distracted. She'd been holding the keys to something that could potentially change the entire course of the Beast Wars as they knew it! Deep down, Rattrap knew that Dinobot stealing those alien disks and hiding them from the rest of the crew had not been done with any malicious intent towards them, but he still couldn't help but feel some small element of betrayal in what she did.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Rattrap converted to robot-mode. He was just about to turn and head for the bridge when he finally looked up and noticed the tall figure standing off to the side in the far corner of the bay, as though she'd been waiting for him. Churning feelings of betrayal once again rose in the back of his throat as Rattrap reluctantly turned to face Dinobot. He forced his features into a carefully flat expression. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her since Optimus gathered the crew to explain the situation earlier that morning. He hadn't been able to stomach the thought of facing, let alone _talking_ to her since then…

"Wha'da ya want, Choppa'face?" he demanded, his tone intentionally cold.

Dinobot slowly stepped closer, her head bowed and body language almost… timid. Rattrap felt his anger lose a little of its bitter edge at the sight of the warrioress's hesitant approach.

"There is something of great importance I wish to speak to you about, rodent…" Dinobot murmured when she finally came to a stop in front of him and focused her attention on a spot on the floor just to the right of the smaller Maximal's left pede.

Rattrap shook his head. He wasn't ready to do this yet. He was still too disappointed and angry to want to hear anything Dinobot might have to say. He couldn't even imagine what explanation she might try to give for what she'd done. "Listen," he said, turning back towards the hatchway, "I'm kinda busy right now, so maybe later when-"

"Please," Dinobot insisted, sharply raising her optics from the floor to spear him with an almost desperate look. "It is of great importance."

Rattrap hesitated. Dinobot stared at him with pleading optics - an expression he'd never seen on the warrioress's face before. His resolve to remain angry at her wavered. Finally, with a heavy sigh, the spy acquiesced with a reluctant nod.

"I am not quite sure where to begin," the warrioress admitted in a hushed rumble. She shifted her weight nervously between her pedes as though fighting with herself not to turn and just flee the room. "I have rehearsed numerous ways to say this, but… That is, I'm not sure how… I…" Dinobot trailed off into silence, her expression one of floundering panic.

The sight of the usually strong and self-assured warrioress so upset that she could barely string a coherent sentence together shattered any remaining shreds of anger Rattrap might have had towards her. "Listen, Choppa'face," he sighed. "If yer upset 'bout da gold disks, it's ok. Well, I mean, it's not okay ya didn' tell any ov' us 'bout dem earlier, but it's not like ya willingly gave 'em ta ol' One Eye an' Megatron or anything."

Dinobot seemed to regain a little of her usual confidence and snorted derisively under her breath. "As much as I appreciate your sentiments, Vermin, my encounter with Talon and the gold disks are not what I wanted to talk to you about."

Rattrap fell silent and stared at Dinobot with a slightly confused expression.

The warrioress shifted nervously again under his scrutiny and dropped her gaze back to the floor. "Before I go on, I wish to ask you something. What are your feelings… That is, I mean to ask, how serious are you about our… relationship? Where do you see our interactions ultimately leading?"

Rattrap was taken aback by the question. He still wasn't sure where this conversation was going but decided to be honest if only for the sake of moving it forward. He'd never really thought about their relationship that much outside of the here-and-now of it, but his answer came surprisingly easy to him. "I guess I'd say dis is da first real "relationship" I've ever actually been in. I don't think I ever told'ja, but I've never really found a femme before dat's held my attention fer as long as you have. If I was ta ever get "serious" 'bout another 'bot like how dey always go about in songs or vid-films, den I guess yer da most "serious" I'm ever gonna get. Assumin' ya don't go off an' do something stupid like wha' ya did with those gold disks again dat is," he finished with a nervous laugh if only to dispel some of his embarrassment for his honest reply.

Dinobot did not verbally answer, but instead looked as though she was about to be physically sick to her fuel tank. The tiny knot of unease that'd begun to form in the pit of Rattrap's own since starting this conversation exploded into full blown worry.

"Wha'? What is it? Wha's wrong, Lizard Lips?" he demanded and took a step closer to the distraught warrioress.

For a moment Dinobot tried to avoid eye contract with the spy and pointedly stared at the ground. But then taking a deep intake as though to steel herself for what she was about to say, she looked up and speared Rattrap with a look of desperate helplessness. "I am carrying a second spark."

Rattrap froze, as though all of time and space had come to an abrupt and grinding halt around him. All neural processes screeched to an immediate halt. He stared at Dinobot, not quite sure if he'd heard correctly.

"… wha'?" he said in the calmest voice he could manage. It came out as nothing more than a tiny squeak even to his own audios.

"I said," Dinobot said, spearing Rattrap with a dark look and annunciating her words with exaggerated care, "that I am carrying a second spark. _Yours_ to be exact."

Rattrap stared at Dinobot, waiting for her to break the tension and tell him that what she was saying was only a joke. But the spy already knew the warrioress was never going to say such a thing because Dinobot never joked about anything. _Especially_ not about something like this!

The spy physically struggled to put words to the frantic storm of thoughts now swirling around his processor. "A-are you sure?" he was somehow able to choke out.

Dinobot leveled her most poisonous glare at him. "Of course I am, Vermin! Do you not think I would have checked, double-checked, and triple-checked such a diagnosis? I even checked the CR chamber's scanners to make sure there wasn't something wrong with the equipment, but there wasn't!"

"But when?" Rattrap demanded, still in a daze. He was aware of the subtle but steadily mounting sense of panic inside him. "How could dis have happened?"

Dinobot snarled, glaring daggers at the spy as though her condition was somehow his own fault. "The night we both let our lowered inhibitions get the better of us thanks to massive amounts of high grade. Unless that night was completely erased from your memory banks, you might remember it was the only time we ever truly interfaced, which - you might also remember from your academic days - is how energy is exchanged between two bots to spark the conception of a third. Because of our inebriated state neither of us thought to put up any flux barriers to prevent such an energy exchange from happening."

Rattrap stared at Dinobot, his spark pulsing wildly against the insides of his rib struts. "But it was only that one time!" he argued, as though that could somehow change what had happened.

"Once is sometimes all it takes," Dinobot snarled in reply.

"Who else knows 'bout dis?" Rattrap asked in a strangled whisper. He was still trying to get his neural functions to catch up with the present.

Dinobot shook her head, as though already wearied by this conversation. "Only me. I did not feel it was proper to tell anyone else about my condition until I informed you first. Seeing as how you are the sire of this sparkling I thought you might want a say in what happens next."

Rattrap went still, the word 'sire' breaking through his daze of shock and disbelief to stand out from all of Dinobot's other words like ten-foot high neon letters and reverberate through his audios like a never ending echo. Sire… With that single word, everything that Dinobot had said up until this point was suddenly put into sharp, simplistic focus. Sire. Creator. _Father_. He was going to be a father. Dinobot was carrying a sparking.

_His _sparkling.

Without realizing it, Rattrap took a step closer to Dinobot, his optics trained on the area just beneath the warrioress's breastplate. The spy's hand shook slightly as he reached out and timidly pressed his palm to the base of Dinobot's breastplate as though afraid she might suddenly lash out and bite his hand off. But instead, the warrioress stood there silent and still, not moving a cable. Beneath his hand he could feel the gentle pulse of Dinobot's spark and (he was sure he was only imagining it, but entertained the fantasy nonetheless) the pulse of his unborn sparkling's beating in tandem with Dinobot's like a ghostly echo.

"Primus…" he whispered as everything suddenly seemed to come crashing down on him at once. He slowly removed his hand from Dinobot's chest to look up and meet her optics. "We're gonna have a sparkling…"

Dinobot scrutinized Rattrap from a long moment of silence. "You do not find this situation disagreeable?"

Rattrap was surprised by the immediateness of his answer. "No." He shook his helm lightly, as though trying to rattle his circuits into properly functioning order so that he might better explain. "I mean… I've never really thought 'bout havin' sparklings ov' my own before. Ya know, never really thought I'd find anyone I wanna sire a sparkling with or anyone who'd wanna actually carry my sparkling fer dat matter. Kind of always worried wha' kind ov' a creator I'd be if I ever did. But, now dat it actually happened…" he trailed off into helpless silence, unable to find the words to properly describe the storm of emotions currently wreaking havoc on his insides. He shakily reached out and pressed his hand once more to Dinobot's chest directly overtop the discolored circles of scar tissue Talon had left in the warrioress's superstructure. "We're gonna have a sparkling…" he whispered again in reverent awe.

Dinobot stared at him, her face distant and unreadable. "You want this." It was not a question, but a blunt observation.

Rattrap gave an ironic chuckle. "I can't believe I'm actually sayin' dis, but… yea. I really do." Silence met his answer which made the spy look up at Dinobot's face. An unsettling thought suddenly stabbed through his daze of euphoric glee. "Wait… Wha' 'bout you, Choppa'face? D'yu want dis sparkling?"

Dinobot met his gaze and held it steadily with her own. In her optics Rattrap could see the warrioress's hesitation and fear - the heavy burden her answer would carry with it no matter which way she replied. The moment seemed to drag on forever before Dinobot abruptly broke eye contact and bobbed her head, as though coming to the end of a long and painful decision.

"It's been decided," she said with a dismissive shake of her helm. She brusquely backed away out of Rattrap's reach. "I have done some preliminary research on my condition," she said in a suddenly brisk and business-like tone which Rattrap did not fail to notice. "Normal gestation for a Cybertronian if carried to term inside its carrier is roughly two lunar cycles - two weeks of which have already passed. If my calculations are correct, I should deliver by the end of next month. We should inform Optimus and the rest of the crew about this as soon as possible so that considerations concerning patrols and shift rotations can be put into effect."

"Um… yea. Dat sounds reasonable," Rattrap murmured.

Dinobot nodded. Then, turning sharply on her heels she strode out of the room, leaving the shell-shocked spy to silently stare after her retreating back…

_To be Continued…_

Yeah. That's right. I'm going there. Sorry, _TickleMyBambo,_ but I've been planning this for quite a long time now. Hope it won't permanently scare you off of this story, but if it'll make you feel better this newest development is NOT going to turn this into some lovey-dovey pregnancy fic. I don't do butterflies and sunshine. Dark stuff's brewing on the horizon.

PLEASE REVIEW! (I've actually been dreading posting this chapter since I'm not sure how people are going to react to this new plot twist.)


	7. Coming Out

Long-ish chapter once again. They just seem to be getting longer and longer with each update…

**Chapter Seven: Coming Out**

To say the rest of the Axalon's crew was surprised by news of Dinobot's pregnancy would have been the understatement of the century. When Optimus gathered them together for another emergency meeting earlier that evening, he could have told them that the Beast Wars were over and that Megatron and the other Predacons were going to retire to a life of peaceful oil farming and it would have been less shocking. Blackarachnia was still trying to make her head stop spinning from the sheer ludicrousness of it. All of them had had their suspicions concerning Dinobot and Rattrap for quite some time now. But to find out that not only were the two of them romantically involved, but that at some point during their relationship their secret trysts had sparked the creation of another spark was just too much for a normal bot to take in all at once.

Blackarachnia walked through the corridors as though in a daze from the Axalon's main bridge back to her quarters. She needed time and space to try and make her motherboard compute everything Optimus had just told them. She was still having trouble accepting some of it. While many of the other Maximals had warmed up quickly to the idea of another bot soon joining their ranks - some of them (namely Airazor) even getting openly excited at the prospect - Blackarachnia couldn't help but feel almost… disappointed in Dinobot.

Since joining the Maximals the black widow had come to respect the other femme in a way she never had another bot before. Dinobot was the only one on Primal's crew she felt comfortable taking orders from or following into battle. The warrioress was cunning and reliable, but not steeped with the same nauseating, sappy ideals as the rest of the crew. She did not go on and on about righteousness or fair play like the other Maximals did, nor try to change her personality to coincide with their frustratingly passive ways. If she wanted something done she didn't stand around talking about it like Primal or the other Maximals did; she went out and fought until she got it. Simple as that. With Dinobot on the crew Blackarachnia didn't feel quite so much like an outsider. Although the two of them hadn't shared more than a few passing words between them since she'd joined the crew, Blackarachnia felt like she had at least one kindred spark amongst the Maximals - someone who could understand her own ways of thinking and her aversion to some of the Maximals' more idealistic views of the world. If it hadn't been for Dinobot, Blackarachnia wasn't sure how she would have made the transition from Megatron's crew to the Maximals. With Dinobot around she knew exactly what she could get away with and what was expected of her in return.

But then to find out the tough-as-nails warrioress she'd come to respect had allowed herself to get impregnated - by the smelly little smart-aleck _Rattrap_ of all bots! - had thrown Blackarachnia for a complete loop. Never would she have thought Dinobot would allow such a thing to happen. Dinobot was not a femme to forget about something as basic as flux barriers while interfacing and accidentally get herself pregnant. Perhaps the conception of a second spark wasn't really what was so shocking to Blackarachnia as Dinobot's willingness to actually continue carrying it. Dinobot was not what Blackarachnia would call maternally suited. Spark-rearing just didn't seem conducive to her nature. How the warrioress was going to care for and raise a sparkling, especially in the middle of a war, was beyond Blackarachnia's scope of imagination.

Shaking her head in bewildered mystification for possibly the hundredth time since Primal's emergency meeting, Blackarachnia continued her trek towards her quarters. It was times like these she really wished she had a secret stash of high grade hidden somewhere to help ease the stress of living with these Maximals…

As Blackarachnia turned the last corner to the ship's personnel wing she was slightly startled to see another bot standing at the far end of the corridor in front of the door to her own rooms. The mech stood in the middle of the hallway with his arms crossed and frame tense with nervous energy. His body language practically screamed impatience. Blackarachnia smirked and slowed her already easy pace to a languid stroll if only to savor the look of puppy-like excitement on Silverbolt's face when he looked up and saw her a little bit longer. His wings visibly perked as she sashayed closer.

"Any particular reason you're standing outside my quarters like a lost little stray?" she asked in a coquette voice as she came within the last few feet of Silverbolt and stopped. Although she'd never admit it to anyone, ever since Silverbolt rushed out in the middle of battle to rescue her, Blackarachnia's originally cold attitude towards the fuzor had thawed considerably. No longer did she see him as the stupid hero-wannabe she once did. Instead, over the last few weeks, she's begun to notice more of Silverbolt's redeeming qualities: most notably his honesty, his chivalry, his perpetually respectful demeanor not only to Optimus but everyone on their crew. But more than anything she'd come to enjoy his painfully obvious infatuation for her. It was only after his chivalrous rescue that she'd begun to actually pay attention to him whenever he approached her to talk. But in doing so and letting the do-gooding fuzor close she'd unwittingly opened the doors for her to fall just a little bit for him in return.

Silverbolt returned her smirk with an open smile. "I noticed that you left the meeting a little abruptly just now. I just wanted to made sure everything was alright with you before you retire for the night."

Blackarachnia snorted, all the child-like giddiness of finding Silverbolt waiting for her outside her rooms evaporating almost as quickly as it'd come. "Everything's fine with _me_. It's this whole mess with Dinobot that's got my wires in a twist."

"You mean her and Rattrap's impending sparkling?" Silverbolt said. "I admit I was more than a little surprised when Optimus told us about the situation, but I think this news is cause for celebration. The creation of new life is always a welcome event."

Blackarachnia rolled her optics in disgust. "Why am I not surprised? That's exactly what I'd expect one of you soft-sparked Maximals to say."

"You don't find the news of a new spark coming online a joyful occasion?" the fuzor asked as though truly confused by Blackarachnia's thinly veiled contempt.

"Not in the middle of a war," she spat. "And especially not when the carrier of this sparkling is _Dinobot_. She's our best fighter and she'd been removed from all long-range patrols and scouting missions until she delivers. What are we going to do if Megatron suddenly decides to attack us with another bomb - or worse! - when she's too far along in her pregnancy to help fight? What are we going to do then? We don't have the resources or manpower to fight Megatron and his men off and protect her at the same time. Not to mention he now has one of the golden disks back. Who knows what he's planning to use it for."

"We'll figure something out and make due with what we have if and when that time ever comes," Silverbolt calmly replied. "Optimus does not seem immediately concerned about it and thus we should follow his lead. For the moment we should be happy for Rattrap and Dinobot and share in their joy of expecting a new spark amongst us."

Blackarachnia would have laughed at the dopey look of wonder in Silverbolt's eyes if she wasn't so sickened by his simplistic sparkles-and-sunshine view of what they all now faced. "I highly doubt Dinobot is feeling anything close to 'joy' at the moment. You must not have been looking at her when Optimus told the crew about her and the rat's impending little bundle of circuits. She's anything but happy about this. I could see it in her eyes." Shaking her head in helpless frustration, the black widow speared Silverbolt with a scathing glare. "You know, it's so easy for mechs to make spark-bearing sound like a magical thing. Mechs aren't expected to carry other sparks like femmes are. Mechs aren't expected to care for the sparking once it comes online. It's all the femme's responsibility. Not to mention the physical dangers spark-bearing poses for the carrier. We're stranded on a primitive alien planet with no medical equipment or fully trained medics. We have no way of radioing for help or even getting detailed data files on what to do if something goes wrong. The chances of Dinobot dying from complications are high. From a purely strategic standpoint we can't afford to lose her. Especially when we might only end up swapping her life for a tiny sparkling that will only eat up more of our already limited resources taking care of it, and not offer us any kind of strategic advantage in return."

"Surely Rattrap won't expect Dinobot to take on all the responsibilities of caring for a sparking herself," Silverbolt argued. "Nor will Dinobot be in any grave danger with Rhinox overseeing her pregnancy-"

"You are missing the point," Blackarachnia harshly cut him off. "Dinobot's a fighter, a warrior. It's not in her programming to spark-bear. No matter how this turns out she will never be the same afterwards. This situation is backing her into a position she should never have been put in to begin with."

"I have not known Dinobot for that long, but she does not strike me as a bot that would ever be forced into any position she did not wish. She's decided to continue carrying, which means she and Rattrap must have come to some mutual agreement concerning this sparkling."

Blackarachnia didn't answer, and instead stood with both arms crossed and stared angrily away from Silverbolt into space.

Silverbolt's optics narrowed as he studied the black widow. "Why are you so upset about this?" he asked, taking a half-step closer. "What is this really all about? You've never struck me as someone who'd take such a personal interest in another bot's affairs if there wasn't some reason for it." Blackarachnia refused to answer or even look at him. Silverbolt pressed on regardless. "Are you so upset over this because, perhaps, Dinobot's situation makes you wonder what you yourself would do if you were in her place?"

Blackarachnia heaved a heavy sigh. Why did the big dope have to be so perceptive and put all her unnamed emotions and concerns into such sharp, simplistic words? Mustering her courage she lifted her head to meet Silverbolt's concerned optics. "I don't know what I'd do…" she admitted softly under her breath. "It's not something I _ever_ want to know. The whole thing just seems so unfairly stacked against the femme. Carrying, spark-bearing, taking care of the brat once it comes online… It just seems like so much work with no real reward in the end except a lifetime of sacrifice and cageless imprisonment. I don't know how that stupid lizard's ever going to do this. She'll probably end up eating it before the thing even sees its first stellar cycle."

Silverbolt chuckled and smiled at Blackarachnia as though truly amused by her fatalistic pessimism. "I highly doubt spark-rearing is as horrible as you seem to think it is. I know it is difficult, but I'm sure it has its own rewards. You might have been looking at Dinobot while Optimus explained the situation, but I was looking at Rattrap and saw the look on his face. Dinobot will not have to go through this alone. He and Dinobot might not share any official bond yet, but I know he will act as her sparkmate in every sense of the word and claim his share of responsibility for this sparkling." Taking a slow, measured half-step closer so that he stood within Blackarachnia's immediate space he went on, "But if you still worry for Dinobot, perhaps it is time for you and her to get to know each other better. After all, you are both ex-Predacon femmes. I think you would have more in common with Dinobot than she would with Airazor. And given Dinobot's condition, despite whatever she might say to the contrary, now is the time she needs another femme like herself by her side to help see her through this."

Blackarachnia held Silverbolt's gaze for a moment of quiet, contemplative silence before finally letting the sneer she'd been holding back spread across her face. "Please don't tell me you believe that gooey crud, because I might just have to purge my tanks if you seriously expect me to listen to any more of it."

Silverbolt gave a good-natured chuckle and smiled fondly down at the taciturn black widow. "Forgive me, but I'm afraid it's my Maximal programming. Whatever worries you have for Dinobot and her sparkling I have a feeling everything will work out in the end."

"There you go again with that annoying Maximal optimism of yours," Blackarachnia snorted Her expression softening, she leaned closer to Silverbolt until she was almost pressing right up against him and gazed up into his optics. "You're just lucky you're so cute or I'd have to never talk to you again for all the sentimental crud you like to spew."

"Then I am truly lucky Primus blessed me so, because I'm not sure what I would do if you suddenly no longer wished to indulge me with your attention."

Blackarachnia stared deeply into the fuzor's yellow optics, as though trying to see all the way inside him to his core. As if seized by the same intense urge they leaned closer to each other, their optics locked together. Silverbolt craned his head down towards her. Blackarachnia could feel the gentle puff of his intakes against her cheek and warmth of his core against her breastplate he stood so close. His face loomed closer, his lips pursed together in anticipation for what could only be a kiss.

Blackarachnia inwardly smirked. Silverbolt really was a sweet mech, but completely naïve if he though she was going to yield to his boyish charms so easily. Just before Silverbolt could cover the last few inches separating them Blackarachnia abruptly leaned back away from the fuzor's questing lips.

Upon meeting nothing but empty air, Silverbolt blinked in surprise and stared at Blackarachnia in open confusion. Blackarachnia returned the fuzor's stunned look with a coy grin.

"Well, goodnight, fly boy." With a seductive glance, she edged around Silverbolt with a smooth roll of her hips and disabled the locks to her door. It slid open with a quiet _woosh_. She stepped through and turned back to give Silverbolt once last saucy grin. Then promptly shut the door in his face.

* * *

Talon stood stiffly at attention: her shoulders firmly squared and spinal column painfully straight. Her rigid posture pulled at the newly reformed protomatter of her stomach. Her latest encounter with Dinobot had forced her to spend more than four hours in the CR tank to repair the damage. Despite repairs, her stomach still throbbed with the dull ache of remembered pain. It would be several days before the tenderness completely disappeared, but Talon refused to let any kind of discomfort show. To do so would be a sign of weakness. And weakness of any kind was not tolerated - whether it was from her or anyone else on the crew. Weakness was a death sentence for any who fought under the Predacon battle standard, and she was not about to do anything to lower herself in her Lord's eyes if she could help it.

Megatron sat in the Darksyde's command chair studying the gold disk Talon had brought back to him. He turned it over slowly between his hands, back and forth again. The raised alien hieroglyphs caught and reflected the bridge's murky light in sharp little flashes, like mysterious snatches of code from another dimension. His face was an unreadable mask, his optics narrowed in intense focus. Talon wished she could move or at least do something to alleviate some of the anxious energy that was steadily building inside her, but she dared not. Fidgeting was not becoming of a warrior or a loyal servant of the Predacon warlord. Megatron had yet to say anything since she'd presented the gold disk to him just a few short klicks before. She wasn't sure what was going through her master's head, nor was she sure she really wanted to. The consequences should he be displeased were not something she necessarily wanted to think about…

Finally, Megatron raised his optics to look at her. "I thought I ordered you to bring me _both_ disks back." The warlord's voice was a deep, ominous rumble.

Talon immediately dropped to one knee, her head bowed in supplication. "Forgive me, my Lord. I failed you. Dinobot landed a grievous blow to me in battle, making me unable to retrieve the second disk from her. I retreated with the one for fear she would overpower me and take it back."

Megatron growled under his breath. "That means she's probably taken the other disk back to the Maximals. It will be protected even more closely now with Primal and the rest of his crew looking after it."

Talon bowed her head lower, her insides burning with shame. "Forgive me, my Lord…"

Megatron ignored her. He continued to turn the disk back and forth in his hands. The hieroglyphs flashed cryptically in the light. "Unfortunately, without the other disk there's no way for me to test these disks' power. I have an idea for how they might be harnessed, but it is too dangerous to do anything without knowing the outcome of what those actions would be first." His optics narrowed. "We will have to get the second disk before we can proceed any further."

Talon raised her head just enough to see Megatron's seated profile. "How shall we do that, my Lord?"

"By a direct attack on the Maximal base. If that traitor's given the disk to Primal, then nothing less than an all out assault will force them to reveal its whereabouts." Leaning back in his chair, Megatron dolefully stared at the gold disk in his hand. "That treacherous raptor… No longer on my crew and she still manages to foil my plans. I should have forced a sparkbond on her sooner when she was still in my control. Then this entire fiasco with the gold disks never would have happened and I would already be back on Cybertron building my army to bring the Maximal Imperium and Tri-Predacus Council to their knees…"

Talon had to call upon every ounce of warrior stoicism in her to keep the volcanic surge of hatred and jealousy from showing on her face at the almost wistful look of desire in Megatron's optics. Her one hand involuntarily clenched into a shaking, bladed fist overtop her knee. That disgusting traitor… Even now, weeks after losing Dinobot to the Maximal's rescue party, Megatron still openly yearned for the treacherous warrioress, regardless of the fact he had made Talon to take her place by his side. Talon's fuel lines literally boiled to hear Megatron speak about Dinobot like that while she - a perfect living copy of the warrioress! - knelt right there in front of him. Didn't he see she would do absolutely _anything_ for him? Didn't he know she would lay down her life for him in a spark-pulse if he but asked it of her? What did she have to do to win the warlord's attention? Dinobot didn't deserve the processing power Megatron wasted on her. Not after she willingly turned her back on her own race and Megatron's dreams of galactic conquest. If anyone deserved Megatron's affections it was _her: _Talon. No one - not even Inferno! - could claim to be as devoted to Megatron's cause or the warlord himself as she was. She would lay siege on the very gates of the Pit and take on Unicron himself to prove herself to Megatron if that was what it took. But no matter how hard she tried, nothing had yet to sway Megatron's interest away from Dinobot towards her where it rightfully belonged.

Megatron by now had returned from his wistful musings and once again adopted the cold battle mask of the Predacon general he was. "Send word to Terrorsaur and Waspinator," he said, not even glancing in Talon's direction. "Tell them to begin scouting the Maximal's outer perimeter for the best place from which to launch an attack on their base. I want detailed aerial layouts of their security points by the end of the day."

"Yes, my Lord," Talon said. With one last scrapping bow she reluctantly turned away from the warlord and moved towards a waiting hover-platform. Megatron had returned his attention to the gold disk and continued to turn it back and forth in his hand as though trying to scry some hidden meaning from its alien markings.

Talon longingly watched him for a moment out of the corner of her optic before activating the platform's controls. Oh yes, she thought as she guided it away from the bridge to carry out her Lord's commands. She was going to prove herself worthy of Megatron's attention and earn her place by his side. Even if she had to kill her genetic originator, Dinobot, to do it…

* * *

Stop the tele-feeds. Halt all unnecessary communications. It was possibly the single most shocking event of the Axalon's entire trans-dimensional voyage thus far:

Rattrap - Maximal spy, demolitions expert and all around death-allergic slacker - was on monitor duty and _not_ trying to sneak a round of one of his notorious computer games. If his great-aunt Arcee were there she probably would have keeled over dead from shock. Rattrap inwardly smirked at the thought. What he wouldn't give to see _that_ happen. From his earliest days she'd always scolded him for not taking anything seriously and always shirking his duties. Who would have ever thought he'd one day become the responsible mech she'd always lectured him he should be?

He knew his newfound sense of responsibility wasn't going to last indefinitely however. Nobody changed their nature that quickly no matter what was the catalyst for it. In any event, he had been inspired to improve himself, and for the last several days he'd had no desire to try and thumb his nose at authority and basic protocol like he'd always done before. For the moment he was flying high - seized by a previously unbeknownst sense of glee. In less than another month and a half he was going to be father. The mere thought of being a creator still threatened to send a huge grin spreading across his face.

Who would have ever thought he - him, Rattrap, of all bots! - would someday be a creator? Before leaving Cybertron and coming to this primitive alien planet he certainly never had. Before Dinobot dropped her unexpected bombshell on him, he would have laughed at the mere idea of him someday siring a sparkling. For in what universe could _he_ ever be a good creator? Back on Cybertron he'd never wanted the responsibility of raising a sparkling. He'd had no desire to be responsible for screwing up a member of the next generation.

But now… now that he was about to be the creator of a sentient being that would forever after and immutably be _his_, he could barely contain his giddiness at the prospect of soon holding his own genetic progeny in his arms. What would his sparkling look like? Who would it take after more? Him or Dinobot? Would it have his sense of humor? Dinobot's combative skills? Her height? (For his sparkling's sake he seriously hoped so in that one aspect at least.) These and so many other questions constantly filled his processor, making him even more anxious to meet his creation. The possibilities were endless and enticing in their mystery.

The entire thing still felt surreal to him, like a dream he was about to wake up from at any minute. But there was no denying the excitement he felt. Nor was he the only one excited about welcoming a new spark online. There was a noticeable aura of anticipation amongst the crew ever since Optimus had gathered everyone together and announced his and Dinobot's expected progeny. At first, everyone had been duly shocked to learn the true extent of his and Dinobot's relationship (which Rattrap didn't fault them in in the least.) But almost immediately afterwards as that shock faded from their processors Rattrap's own excitement seemed to spread to everyone else.

Airazor had been the one most outspokenly thrilled by the news. So caught up in her excitement at one point she'd actually darted forward and drew both Rattrap and Dinobot into an unexpected embrace. Rattrap had accepted the gesture well enough, but Dinobot had stiffened and stood there awkwardly until the female flier finally released her. Looking back on it now, Airazor was probably lucky Dinobot hadn't reacted more badly to such a intimate display of happiness and dismantled her for her breech of space. He supposed it just went to show how much the warrioress had come in her stunted understanding of interpersonal relationships since joining the Maximal crew…

Tigatron, Cheetor and Silverbolt had also come to express their happiness quickly enough. Blackarachnia had seemed mostly indifferent to the news and spent the entire meeting with a mild sneer plastered on her facial plates. Not that Rattrap cared much what the black widow thought of his and Dinobot's relationship in any case. She was still too new to the crew and mired in her former faction's ways for him to trust her that much. If anything, he'd already decided that if he had to keep a watch out for any potential threats towards his lover and unborn sparkling from within the ship, they would most likely come from the black widow. He hadn't liked the way he'd seen her staring at Dinobot while Optimus announced Dinobot's pregnancy to the crew. Until she truly proved herself a loyal member of the Maximals he was going to be keeping a close optic on Blackarachnia…

The only other one who hadn't seemed happy with the news was Rattrap's longtime friend, Rhinox. Even before Optimus formally announced the news for them, he'd known the engineer wouldn't approve of his involvement with the ex-Predacon femme. Rhinox hadn't said or done anything to display his displeasure, but Rattrap could feel the disapproval radiating off the burly mech as Optimus explained the situation. He was still waiting for Rhinox to corner him and give him the lecture of his lifetime. Oh well. It wasn't like he could do much more than that. Whether he liked it or not, Dinobot was carrying his sparkling and nothing Rhinox said or did was going to change that now. He was just going to have to accept it and come to terms with his relationship with the raptor. Because Rattrap was damned if he was going to let Rhinox ruin his moment of being the expectant father.

The sound of another bot entering the bridge made Rattrap look up from the monitors. He grinned at who he saw.

"Hey, Choppa'face," he called as Dinobot ducked through the hatchway into the room. Behind him, Optimus, Rhinox and Silverbolt also looked up from what they were doing and nodded their greetings to her. Blackarachnia didn't even look away from her computer screen.

"Vermin," the warrioress coldly replied and stalked towards the nearest bank of computer monitors on the other side of the bridge near Blackarachnia. Airazor and Tigatron had left base earlier that morning for a long-range patrol to the north. Dinobot was to monitor the communication lines in case either of them tried to radio to base.

Rattrap frowned slightly. Even though their relationship was no longer a secret in any respect, the warrioress still went out of her way to act unsociable towards him whenever they were together in front of others. He wasn't sure if it was because she wanted to maintain an aura of professionalism while on duty or if it was because of something else. In either case, Rattrap wasn't sure he liked Dinobot's pointed coldness towards him in public. Everyone already knew they were involved. They were expecting a sparkling together for Primus sake! So what was the point of this continued charade? Who was Dinobot trying to fool anymore?

Heaving a disgruntled sigh, Rattrap returned his attention to the monitors. He supposed he'd just have to wait and ask her about it after they were relieved of duty. Primus only knew how hard it'd be to get Dinobot to talk about anything so personal as their relationship outside of closed quarters…

Despite the small distraction of Dinobot's appearance, the status quo of busy silence was almost immediately reestablished on the bridge; everyone deeply engrossed in their assigned tasks. Minutes ticked by and before too long Rattrap found himself getting bored. Since Airazor and Tigatron left for patrol earlier that morning, nothing had showed up on his security feeds - not even a mouse! He began to drum his fingers absentmindedly against the armrest of his seat. He knew he'd decided to try and be more responsible since finding out about his impending fatherhood, but surely one game of five-card stud wouldn't hurt anyone…

Alarms suddenly wailed to life around the bridge. Red lights began to flash. Everyone tensed in their seats and looked up in confusion.

"The security perimeter's been tripped," Rhinox called over the drone of the alarms. His beefy fingers pounded at the keyboard. "Coming in from the southeast. I'm picking up Predacon energy signatures."

"How many?" Optimus said.

Rhinox punched in another series of code into the computer and a 3-D topographical image of the Axalon and the surrounding area appeared on the holo-table. A small group of blinking red dots appeared in the far right corner of the readout. "Four of them," Rhinox said. "It doesn't look like a large attack party."

"Activate Sentinel," Optimus said. "I don't want a head-on confrontation with Megatron if we can avoid it."

Silverbolt swiveled around in his seat to do so, but before the flier could even bring up the ship's auto-defenses Rattrap's own security sensors began to chirp in alarm. "Whoa, whoa whoa!" he called over the computer's shrill beeps. "I got enemy fliers comin' in at two o'clock! Looks like Terrorsaur an' Waspinator."

Just as he said, his computer screen showed the black-and-white image of the two Predacons zooming in fast over the ship's starboard side. As he watched Terrorsaur and Waspinator sped side-by-side between the Axalon's forward gun turrets. Before he or anyone else could understand what the two were planning, Waspinator and Terrorsaur both dove low and threw what appeared to be high-tech grenades at the ship's outer hull. There was a brilliant flash of light which made the video feed cut out and the screen fill with static. The bridge's lights flickered and dimmed. All the computer screens on the bridge went black and the holo-image on the table blinked out of existence. The security alarms abruptly went silent as the bridge was thrown into sudden, complete darkness. There was a momentary pause before the low hum of the ship's backup generator kicking on sounded and the auxiliary lights flickered on, bathing the bridge in an eerie red glow.

"What happened?" Dinobot demanded, springing to her pedes with a growl.

"Looks like they used EMP charges," Blackarachnia said as she uselessly pounded at her dead computer station. "They've knocked out the ship's main power grid. All security programs and onboard systems have been deactivated. Sentinel's offline. Right now we're all sitting ducks."

"Looks like Megatron wants a head-on confrontation after all," Rhinox deadpanned.

"Most likely he's come for the second gold disk Talon was not able to take from me," Dinobot said. With a snarl she unsheathed her sword from her back. "If it's a battle he wants, then that is what he shall get."

"No," Optimus said, stepping towards her. "Megatron will get a fight, but not from you." Dinobot stiffened and looked ready to argue, but Optimus cut her off before she could speak. "You are in no condition to be charging recklessly into battle. Right now I need you to go to the ship's core and manually reboot its main systems and Sentinel. There's no way we can keep Megatron from storming the Axalon without any automated defenses."

"Send somebody else," Dinobot snarled. "I can still fight. I am in no way incapacitated by my 'condition.'"

"I know that," Optimus soothed, "but you have to think about the welfare of the sparkling you're carrying. And running headlong into battle isn't how you do that."

Dinobot still looked ready to argue, and stood quivering with tension. But then with a brief glance in Rattrap's direction, the warrioress reluctantly re-sheathed her sword. "Fine," she hissed. "But I want it understood that I can still fight no matter what weaknesses you seem to think I now possess."

Optimus nodded. "I'll comm. Cheetor and tell him to meet you there to help. Rhinox, stay here on the bridge and activate Sentinel once Dinobot and Cheetor reboot the systems. The rest of you," he said, sweeping his optics around the bridge, "prepare for battle."

Everyone instantly jumped to obey. As the crew hurried for the lifts, weapons drawn, Rattrap edged his way to Dinobot's side for one last brief moment with her before he followed them. "Choppa'face…" he murmured. Almost subconsciously he reached out and pressed his hand to the base of Dinobot's breastplate. He didn't know why he'd felt the need to touch her just now, but the gesture felt inexplicable _right_. Maybe it was an instinctual need to try and somehow reassure the tiny new spark of life growing there; or maybe it was an unspoken promise to his lover that he would return shortly. He didn't know. All he knew for sure was the warm, agitated pulse of his lover's spark beneath his palm.

The warrioress glanced down and held his gaze with her own. A multitude of unspoken emotions they could have never verbally expressed even if they'd wanted to passed between them: worry, panic, frustration, hesitation, devotion, fear. There was no way this attack on them could lead to any good. Who knew if all of them would still be alive when the smoked finally cleared. "Go," she ordered, sharply turning away from him and breaking his hold on her. "I will do what I can to get Sentinel back online as quickly as possibly."

"Yea," Rattrap nodded. He hesitantly turned to follow the others. As the lift descended the last thing he saw of his lover was Dinobot speeding off the bridge into the red-lit belly of the ship.

Predacon laser-fire almost instantly greeted them as he and his fellow Maximals left the safety of the ship. Roughly a hundred feet to the south of the lifts, Megatron and his men had stationed themselves behind a convenient outcropping of rocks. From what Rattrap could tell, it looked like Megatron, Inferno, Quickstrike and Talon. High above, he could hear the drone of Terrorsaur and Waspinator running aerial sweeps back and forth across the now defenseless ship.

"An' here I thought it was just gonna be another borin' day at da office," Rattrap darkly quipped as he ducked a fusion blast and bolted for the nearest form of cover behind one of the Axalon's landing struts.

"Never a dull moment, is there?" Silverbolt humorlessly called back. He and Blackarachnia had both taken refuge behind a small stand of rocks several yards away. Beside them, Optimus took point and opened heavy return fire. Somewhere to Rattrap's right a bomb exploded in a brilliant flash of light and flames.

"Nope. Der isn't," Rattrap agreed. The sound of laser-fire and bullets drummed the air. Plumes of flames sizzled and cracked around him, followed closely by the echo of Inferno's insane laughter. This definitely wasn't how Rattrap had been expecting to spend the day…

"Megatron!" Optimus called over the drone of battle. "Care to explain what brings you out our way today?"

From the other side of the battlefield, the Predacon warlord stepped into view from behind the laser-scorched outcrop of rocks he and his minions had entrenched their battle line. Immediately to the tyrant's right Dinobot's clone, Talon, appeared just where Rattrap had half-suspected he'd find her. No good, back-stabbing she-raptor… Rattrap's internal gears ground together just at the sight of her. He still had yet to forget the bloody, shredded state he'd found Dinobot in after her first encounter with the clone. Given the opportunity, he'd happily plug a bullet right between the femme's optic and her external laser fixture…

Megatron stood proud and tall, a smug grin plastered across his facial plates. "I think you know why I'm here, Primal," he called across the distance. "I want that other gold disk Dinobot stole from me back."

"Sorry, Megatron, but that's Maximal property now," Optimus called back. "Dinobot brought it to me specifically with the intention of keeping it from ever falling into your hands again."

Despite what Rattrap expected, Megatron did not seem surprised or even upset by this. Instead he smirked condescendingly. "I expected she'd do as much after losing the one disk to Talon. That's why I decided to take the fight directly to you as the saying goes. Tell me, where is my little wayward warrior? I was hoping to meet her in battle. I was almost sure she'd try to seek revenge against Talon for her last embarrassing defeat. I can't help but wonder if my ex-lieutenant's too ashamed to show her face again on the battlefield…"

Rattrap had to physically restrain himself from opening fire on the Predacon warlord. His hand involuntarily tightened around his pistol's grip. That slimy slagger… How dare he talk about Dinobot like that as if she had anything to be embarrassed about. Rattrap also did not care for Megatron's repeated use of the word 'my' whenever he referred to Dinobot with a descriptive phrase. Dinobot hadn't been "his" for a very long time now, and never in the way he knew Megatron wished she'd been.

"Hey, Grapeface!" Rattrap yelled, drawing Megatron's attention away from Optimus towards himself. He ignored the poisonous look the warlord leveled at him as he leaned out from behind his cover, and returned Megatron's glare with one of his own. "Dinobot ain't hidin' from anyone. An' definitely not because of any fight she had with yer pet knife drawer over der. She's not here 'cause it's not safe fer her ta be on a battlefield. Ya wanna know why?"

"Rattrap, don't!" Optimus yelled. Rattrap ignored him. All he could focus on was Megatron and the intense desire to permanently wipe that cocky grin off Megatron's facial plates.

"It's 'cause she's carryin' a second spark. An' guess what, Mega-dip. It ain't yer sparkling she's carryin'. It's _mine._"

Rattrap wished he had a camera right then to capture the almost comical look on Megatron's face. The warlord stood motionless, his expression first one of thunderstruck shock, then dawning devastation. Nothing, absolutely _nothing,_ in Rattrap's opinion could have topped that reaction. Rattrap couldn't stop a vindictive grin from slithering across his facial plates. It probably wasn't something to be proud of, but there was no denying the satisfaction he got from finally being able to brag directly in the warlord's face how in the end - after everything Megatron had done to keep Dinobot for himself - it'd been Rattrap who ultimately got to claim the warrioress as his own. Oh revenge was a sweet, sweet dish even better served cold.

"No," Megatron said, firmly shaking his head back and forth in denial. "Impossible. I don't believe it…"

"Believe it," Rattrap hissed. "Dinobot's _mine_."

"Filthy rodent," the warlord snarled, his lips curled back from his teeth in a ricktus of near-mindless rage. "You've tainted her."

"If dat's what ya call siring a sparkling with her den, yea, I _tainted_ her." Oh, how good it felt to finally be able to throw the news in Megatron's face and enjoy the look of helpless rage blossoming in his optics. Because there was nothing Megatron could do to change the truth. He grinned even wider with malicious glee.

With a fearsome roar, Megatron opened fire on Rattrap. The spy barely had time to duck back behind the ship's landing strut before several fusion blasts exploded against the other side of it. Rattrap hunkered down low. Megatron was firing in such quick succession there was no opening him for to move or return fire.

_Frag. Maybe I shoundn' ov tried ta slag him off so much…_ Rattrap winced as a particular vicious blast exploded against the ground barely inches to his left. A smoking half-foot deep crater was left in its wake. Around him, the sounds of explosions and machine gun fire continued to drone.

There was suddenly a brief lull in fire from Megatron's direction. Most likely the tyrant had to wait for his fusion coils to cool down a bit before he could continue his assault. Rattrap was just about to swing out and give some return fire of his own when suddenly above him he heard the low-pitch hum of the ship's main power cells coming back on. At different points around the Axalon's perimeter, defensive guns swiveled around on their turrets towards the Predacon forces.

"Sentinel's back online!" Optimus called. "All Maximals, back inside the ship! Now!"

No one had to be told twice and made a mad dash for the lifts. Rattrap squeezed inside the closest one next to Silverbolt and Blackarachnia. Just as the lift began to rise back towards the bridge, the Axalon's security program locked onto each Predacon energy signal and opened fire. Somewhere in the distance over the muffled _pomph pomph pomph_ of Sentinel's laser blasts, Rattrap thought he heard one last roar of defeat from Megatron as the Predacons scurried to retreat, and grinned victoriously to himself.

His exuberance didn't last long, though. For immediately after the lift finished it ascent and the plexiglas doors slid aside, Rattrap was viciously batted upside the back of his head by something hard. He stumbled out of the lift, holding his helm with one hand.

"Ow! Wha' da heck?" he cried, rounding back on Silverbolt and Blackarachnia. "Which one ov ya-"

"You _idiot!_" Blackarachnia screeched and swung her pincher at him for a second hit. Rattrap just barely managed to dodge it in time. "Why did you go and tell Megatron Dinobot was carrying?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rattrap said, quickly backing away from the enraged femme before she could lash out at him again. Silverbolt reached out to try and hold her back but the black widow easily shook him off. "Wha' I do?"

"Rattrap, don't you have any idea what you just did?" Optimus said, unfolding his transmetal frame out of the other lift. His expression was pinched and grave.

"What's going on?" Rhinox demanded, getting up from his seat next to Sentinel's controls. He glanced between Optimus, Rattrap, Silverbolt and Blackarachnia, waiting for an explanation. But no one answered.

"Wha's got all yer gears in a twist?" Rattrap growled, glaring at Optimus and Blackarachnia interchangeably. "I didn't do anything!"

"'Didn't do anything,' my aft," Blackarachnia venomously parroted. "You've just put Dinobot in the worst kind of danger you could!"

"Put me in what kind of danger?" another voice said from the bridge's entrance. Everyone looked up to see Dinobot with Cheetor standing directly behind her in the doorway. Both of their superstructures were painted with thick smears of black grease and oil from their time in the ship's main core.

Blackarachnia was the first to answer. "Your _boyfriend_ here-" she sent a pointed glare in Rattrap's direction "-just went and told Megatron directly to his face that you're carrying his sparkling. Tall, Dark and Ugly now knows you're carrying."

Dinobot stood for a moment of complete silence. Then, as though finally translating Blackarachnia's words into processed code, turned to stare at Rattrap in open horror. "You did _what_?" Her expression fluidly morphed into one of outrage. "You fool!"

Rattrap cringed back under the warrioress's fury. "Look, I wasn't thinkin,' okay? It just kinda came out."

"Something like that doesn't just 'kind of come out.'" Dinobot snarled. "Do you realize what you've done?"

"It was just a lil' slip!" Rattrap protested. "It's not like ol' Mega-dip can do anything ta change it."

Optimus heaved a frustrated sigh from the other side of the bridge. "Rattrap, we could have hid the sparkling's existence from Megatron, but now he knows Dinobot's carrying. He's going to be targeting both her and the sparkling now."

A cold chill of realization shot down the length of Rattrap's spinal column. Oh no… What had he done? He'd just sworn to himself he'd do anything to protect his lover and unborn sparkling, and what did he go and do but put them both in even greater danger because of his big mouth. Some great father he was turning out to be…

Still shaking his head in disappointment at Rattrap, Optimus turned to Dinobot. "Unfortunately, because of this I'm going to have to confine you to ship for the remaining duration of your pregnancy, Dinobot. The Predacons now know you're carrying, and you're going to start showing soon. You've already begun to show symptoms of fatigue and they'll only get worse the closer you get to delivering. You're too much of a liability in the field now even for short-range patrols. There's no guarantee you'll be able to defend yourself if you're suddenly attacked."

Dinobot's optics widened. "What? No!" She vehemently shook her head. "You can't do that! I can still fight! I am not some helpless invalid just because I'm carrying a second spark."

"I'm sorry," Optimus firmly shook his head. "But it's for the best. You have to think about the safety of your sparkling now even more so than your own. It'll only be for a few more weeks and then I can return you to active duty once you recover."

"No!" she cried, glaring Optimus down. "You can't do that. I won't let you!"

"I can and I will because this is a direct order from your commanding officer."

Dinobot stood literally quivering with rage. Both her hands were balled into shaking fists by her side. For a moment she looked as though she was going to try and argue with Optimus more, but then grudgingly swallowed back her protests as if realizing it would ultimately do her no good. Optimus had pulled rank on her and there was nothing she could do to forcefully make him change his decision. No one said anything to break the suffocating tension suddenly filling the bridge.

Openly livid, but unable to do anything more to plead her case, Dinobot turned and glared at Rattrap. "This is all _your_ fault, you treacherous little rat!" Then, turning her back on everyone she stormed off the bridge. Cheetor had to throw himself against the doorjamb to get out of her way fast enough. Rattrap had no doubt she would have physically body slammed him out of the way if he hadn't.

Leaden silence descended over the bridge.

Blackarachnia was the first to speak in the wake of the warrioress's departure. "Idiot," she spat one last time in Rattrap's direction with narrowed optics, then turned to follow the other femme out the door.

Left behind to stare in the direction his lover had disappeared, Rattrap had the decency to finally look sheepish for his mistake. Primus only knew when Dinobot would let him share her berth again after this. Because he was _definitely_ going to be sleeping alone for the next few days, if not until their sparkling finally came online…

_To be Continued…_

I was originally going to have a scene with Megatron's own reaction, but the length was getting to long. So more on that next chapter.

PLEASE REVIEW!


	8. Frustrated Tempers

This chapter's dedicated to all the Beast War ladies.

**Chapter Eight: Frustrated Tempers**

The halls of the Darksyde were empty and dark. Shadows seemed to literally ooze from the walls and bathe the hallway in inky darkness. It was sometime past midnight. The rest of the crew had long ago retired to their personal quarters to rest and recharge. Talon suspected she was the only one still awake. The heavy staccato of her footsteps echoed eerily down the empty corridors into the distance as she made her way through the ship. She'd spent the last few hours in her room trying to wind down enough to recharge. Sleep, however, continued to elude her.

She supposed it was due to their failed attack on the Maximals' ship earlier that day. It had been a brief battle; the fighting not even that violent. But over the course of it several startling revelations had come to light. Talon wasn't really that surprised to find out her genetic originator was intimately involved with the Maximal spy. She'd caught scents of the annoying little mouse all over her the last two times she'd fought Dinobot. But that didn't mean Talon wasn't still slightly ill to the coolant tanks to think about the warrioress - who was genetically herself in almost every aspect - with the foul-smelling rodent. How could Dinobot stand to be in the same room as him let alone share his berth? It was revolting. And then to have allowed him close enough to actually impregnate her with his spawn? Disgusting… That just proved her other half had absolutely no taste in mechs.

Only one mech had managed to catch Talon's own attention. For her, Megatron was the shining example of what all mechs should strive to be. His size, his strength, his ruthlessness, self-assurance, and pride… There was nothing about him she did not find appealing. He was like a living god of war. His physical presence was as large and imposing as a battle-cruiser, and his goals as lofty as the sky. Just being near Megatron made Talon want to bow down and do everything in her power to please him. At times she felt unworthy to even be in his presence. The way his optics flashed as he devised battle plans, the way the cables in the warlord's arms tensed when he hefted his fusion cannon up to fire… She drunk in every sight like a starving bot thrown a cube of energon. Just the dulcet rumble of his voice was enough to send her sensor nodes tingling. No other mech could do that to her. And the way he stared at what he wanted with that possessive gleam in his optics… Primus, what she wouldn't give for Megatron to look at her just once like that. It was just a shame that Dinobot seemed to be only one that earned such a look from him.

Talon's hands involuntarily clenched into fists by her sides. The angry drum of her feet against the mesh decking reverberated down the corridor. Dinobot did not deserve Megatron's attention. She was a traitor. A thief! From joining the Maximals to stealing the gold disks, she'd done everything in her power to undermine Megatron's plans at every turn. She was not worthy to even look at him, yet the warlord continually did everything he could to sway the warrioress back to their side even though Talon had already taken her place on the crew.

A bolt of physical pain stabbed through Talon's artificial spark at the thought. What did she have to do to win Megatron's affection? What did Dinobot have that she didn't? She was a perfect copy of the warrioress. What hadn't she inherited from her predecessor? Talon knew she was treading dangerously close to the edge of emotional weakness, but there was no denying this smothering sense of… _unfairness_ she felt about the whole thing.

Swallowing back her self-pity and despair, the transmetal femme continued her trek through the quiet ship. With sleep no longer an option, she'd decided to head for the bridge. Maybe watching security feeds for awhile would help cycle her neural functions down enough to finally recharge. As she turned one of the last few corners separating her from the bridge, she was startled to find that she was not the only one of the crew still awake. A shadowy figure stood at the far end of the hall, silent and still. She instantly recognized the mech's outline with a painful twinge of yearning.

Megatron stood with his back to her in front of one of the last few undamaged observation windows that ran along either side of the Darksyde's lower hull. The window overlooked one of the three major lava flows that ran beneath the wrecked flagship. Flickering orange light danced across the front of the warlord's profile as though he stood on the threshold of the Pit, contemplating his entrance into it fiery belly.

Talon's spark pulsed against the inside of her rib struts as she cautiously approached the Predacon leader. He still had yet to acknowledge her or even seem to be aware of her presence. His optics gazed blankly out the grim-coated glass towards the rivers of molten rock as though staring at something a hundred miles away. His expression was a stony, unreadable mask.

"Lord Megatron?" Talon tentatively called as she neared. She had no wish to incur his wrath if he did not want to be disturbed. She came to a stop a respectable number of paces away from him.

Megatron slowly looked away from the window towards her. "Talon," he said. His expression not changing, he turned back towards the window.

Talon hesitated for a moment in the middle of the hallway. Finally, taking this as some unspoken command for her to leave him in peace, she turned to go. Her spark sank slightly at the apparent snub despite no outward betrayal of emotions on her face.

"She's carrying that Maximal's half-breed sparkling…" Megatron's emotionless voice drifted after her before she could actually move. "She wouldn't have agreed to continue carrying it unless she were serious about her ties to that disgusting little spy. I did not want to admit it before now, but I've truly lost her…"

It took Talon a moment to understand that Megatron was talking about his ex-lieutenant, Dinobot. Her lips pressed into a tight thin line against the violent surge of jealousy that flared inside of her at the mention of her hated rival. Nevertheless, Talon wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to be near Megatron and talk to him - no matter what the subject of their conversation was. It also hadn't escaped Talon's notice that for once they were blessedly alone. She was fed up with Megatron's annoying little crony, Inferno, following her around everywhere like an unwanted shadow every time she tried to get close to Megatron.

Sill not quite believing her good luck, she stepped up beside Megatron and followed his gaze out the window towards the sluggish rivers of lava below. Out of the corner of her optic she studied the warlord's face. The reflected light of the lava flows danced back and forth across the harsh contours of his facial plates. Talon greedily drank in the sight. Did Megatron even realize how handsome he was standing like that with that faraway look on his face? Did he know he could have any femme he wanted? Well, any femme other than his ex-lieutenant whose desires seemed to veer more towards smaller, less-endowed mechs, that is…

"Dinobot's a fool, my Lord," Talon said. She did not even try to mask the sharp note of distaste in her voice. "You gave her every opportunity to return to the Predacons and share in your glory, yet she threw your offer back in your face as though it were garbage."

Megatron growled softly under his intakes. "I know," he murmured darkly.

Sullen silence once again descended over the warlord like an invisible shroud. Talon watched him for a moment out of the corner of her optic before hesitantly breaking the silence. "My Lord, if I might ask you a sensitive question: why did you create me?"

Megatron glanced away from the window and stared at Talon with a raised optic ridge as though taken aback by the stupidity of such a question. "I wanted Dinobot's strength and fighting skills at my command again," he said, blunt and impersonal. "Before she switched sides she was always the cornerstone of my offensive attacks. When I lost her to those annoying Maximals, I knew I would have to do something to regain that upper hand on the battlefield, whether it was from Dinobot or someone else."

"But no other reason?" Talon hopefully prodded. "You did not desire me for anything more personal than just a strategic advantage?"

Megatron shook his head and turned his gaze back out the window. "No."

Talon struggled not to let her mask slip in the wake of Megatron's indifferent dismissal of her and her worth.

As though not even aware of the aura of tumultuous emotions coming off the transmetal femme, Megatron turned away from the window. He obviously meant to take his leave of her.

But Talon was not about to be dismissed. Not by Megatron. Not anymore. Not when she wanted - no, _needed_ - him to know how desperately she yearned to serve him; to offer herself to him and give him what he so openly craved. She was exactly that same as Dinobot. So why did he not want her the same way he wanted the traitor?

Without thinking her hand shot out and wrapped around Megatron's wrist, wrenching him back around to face her. "Why do you continue to chase after something you cannot have?" she angrily demanded, glaring up into his optics. "Why do you desire Dinobot so much after she has made it clear that she's chosen to turn her back on you and her Predacon heritage for a Maximal mech? You are still fighting fruitless battles when the war is already lost." Her fingers unconsciously tightened around Megatron's wrist, desperate to somehow make him listen. Even in her agitated state, though, she was careful not to cut him with her finger blades.

At first Megatron seemed startled by Talon unexpected display of force. But that shock quickly morphed into annoyance, then outright anger. His expression became threatening and dark. "Release me _now_," he growled in a dangerously low voice. His optics were two red slits. "You seem to forget who is the master here and are treading extremely close to insubordination. I could throw you in the brig for the next lunar cycle for this disgraceful act of disrespect."

"I don't care!" Talon spat in his face. She leaned closer to him, her grip on Megatron's wrist crushing. They stood so close their chest plates almost touched. "You have let your personal desires blind you. Dinobot carries the rat's progeny - she is _claimed_. She will never be yours now, even if you try to take her again by force. She was a fool and has given up a great privilege of bearing you an heir, but there is nothing you can do to change that now. She is _gone._"

Her voice rough with barely checked emotions, Talon leaned even closer and stared up in Megatron's optics almost desperately. "_I _would have never turned my back on such an honor. If I were her I would have devoted my life to your cause and fought with every diode in my body to win you the glory you seek. Dinobot does not deserve you, my Lord. She has deserted you…"

Megatron stared down at Talon, his facial plates arranged in an unreadable expression. For some unknown length of time the two stood locked in a silent battle of wills. Megatron's optics bore down into hers, but Talon refused to back down or look away. She willed herself to remain outwardly calm despite the hammering pulse of her spark inside her chest cavity. She wasn't going to show any weakness. Not here. Not now. Not when Megatron stood so close she could actually smell the heady scent of oil on his superstructure and feel the radiating warmth of his core against her chest.

The warlord slowly shifted his gaze away from Talon to his wrist where the femme's bladed fingers still encircled it in a crushing hold. Talon did not ease her grip. He stared at it for a moment longer before slowly returning his gaze to her face. His expression was one of contemplation and mild surprise - as though he were suddenly seeing her in a different light.

"And what about you, my dear Talon?" he whispered in a suddenly low and silky voice. He leaned his head down closer to hers. His breath ghosted against the crux of her shoulder guard and neck. Talon suppressed a shudder of desire. "Are you devoted to my cause? Are you willing to give everything you have - possibly even your own life - to help me overthrow those impotent old mechs in powers and bring Cybertron under my own rule?"

Talon didn't hesitate in her answer and pressed herself against Megatron's chest. "Yes," she whispered, breathless and needy. "I pledge my life, body and spark to you and no one else."

Without warning Megatron lunged forward and captured Talon's mouth in a dominating kiss. The warlord's arms were suddenly around her, pulling her roughly against his superstructure. He held her so tightly against him it verged on pain. Talon reciprocated by reaching both arms up to encircle Megatron's neck and pull him deeper into their kiss. Their mouths moved hungrily against each other. Teeth bit at delicate derma plates as though trying to physically tear each other apart in their mutual desperation and lust. Talon pressed herself harder against Megatron as the warlord's hands wandered up and down her frame, roughly groping and pinching as though trying to tactilely claim every inch of her for himself. The transmetal femme arched into his hands. She wanted to feel more of him on her and know it was because he wanted her.

Megatron's hands slid down her sides to the swell of her hips where both slipped around the backs of her thighs and forcibly yanked her up off her pedes. Talon went with the motion and wrapped both her legs around the warlord's waist. Her heels dug into the small of his back. His hands slipped underneath her aft and cradled her almost effortlessly off the ground against him. Talon dealt him a savage nip on the lips. The tangy taste of mech fluid filled her mouth. Megatron growled, sending delicious vibrations through his chest into the front of her breastplate. Spinning, the warlord slammed Talon backwards up against the window they'd just been staring out only a few minutes before. Still supporting her, Megatron pressed forward and snaked his glossa out between her lips. It wrestled wetly with her own. Pinned between the dirt-smeared glass and the purring hot chassis of the mech in front of her, Talon was helpless to do anything to fight this barrage of sensations on her neural net.

Breathless and grinding her body shamelessly against her Lord's for more, Talon surrendered herself to Megatron's assault. _Yes…_ she purred as the warlord roughly pushed her head to the side and transferred his mouth from her lips to the side of her neck. There, he sucked one of her neck cables in between his teeth and bit down hard, spilling her own mech fluid into his mouth.

_Yes. _She moaned deep in the back of her throat with pleasure as the warlord licked the wound clean with his glossa.

Megatron leaned up and growled a single word into her audio, "Mine."

"Yours," Talon whispered in agreement.

One of the warlord's hands snuck lower around the back of her aft up between her legs. There he roughly trailed one fingertip along the edge of her interface panel as an unspoken command. Her panel dutifully slid aside.

_Yes, _her neural processes screamed. _Claim me. Make me yours. Let me make you forget all about _her.

The muffled click of Megatron's own interface panel sliding back sounded over the harsh rasps of their intakes.

And then he did.

* * *

Two weeks. That was how long it'd been since the vermin opened his big mouth on the battlefield and Optimus forced her into confinement. Two weeks she'd been forced to stay aboard the Axalon without being able to go outside for fear of attack. It'd felt like eternity and she still had another month of it to go. It was probably only because of mounting restlessness, but at times it felt like the walls were slowly closing in around her. She'd spent longer time aboard starships for trans-galactic travel, but somehow knowing there was a whole other world waiting just on the other side of the Axalon's walls where she was no longer allowed to go somehow made her confinement ten times worse. For the first time in her life she physically _yearned_ to be outside where she could move about freely without having to walk around stooped over because of her height. (Damn Maximals and their tiny ships.) She tried to rationalize it that this was just a test on her warrior training. But with each passing day the strain of remaining calm under the stress of such rigid confinement wore her down a little bit more.

Dinobot heaved a frustrated sigh. This entire situation was steadily becoming unbearable. It was bad enough that she was forced to endure the indignity of being the carrier of an unplanned sparkling and seemed to have become some sort of delicate, helpless femme in the eyes of all her comrades because of it. But it was even worse to become the victim of all the unpleasant side effects of spark-bearing - which was to say _everything _about it_._ This sparkling was like a leech on her system. Despite all her attempts to ignore it there was no denying the increasing drain of energy on her systems. What had originally presented as only a mild case of lingering fatigue had since blossomed into a near-constant fugue of exhaustion. Since Optimus confined her to base and had given her no other responsibilities except rotating shifts of monitor-duty, Dinobot had taken to spending more time in either hers or Rattrap's personal quarters recharging. Even with a full night's rest she still felt tired all day. Rhinox had said such a thing was normal due to the rapid drain of energy on the carrier's systems in order to construct the sparkling's protoform before it came online. Dinobot understood this and accepted it - it was basic reproductive fact. But that didn't mean she had to enjoy it in any way…

The warrioress moved slowly towards the bridge through the Axalon's corridors. No longer did her footsteps echo down the hallways as she walked. She just didn't have the energy to put any strength behind her stride anymore. Everything about her felt heavy and off - as if her body was no longer actually her own but rather a borrowed vessel she wasn't really in control of. There'd been moments of increasing frequency in when she felt utterly trapped in her own changing body.

She had yet to begin actually showing her pregnancy, however. The framework immediately below her breastplate had begun to show some signs of swelling, but if one didn't know to look for it, it would have been completely overlooked. It was possibly the only thing Dinobot was grateful about concerning this entire ordeal. She still had her dignity in that one respect at least: she didn't have to _look _the part of expectant carrier quite yet.

Unfortunately, despite not showing any physical signs of pregnancy that didn't mean she hadn't begun to feel any other changes. Now halfway through the sparkling's gestation period, besides exhaustion, she'd begun to feel a very noticeable pull on the bottom of her spark chamber as though a heavy weight was hanging off of it. According the brief and generally unhelpful passages concerning spark-bearing in the ship's medical files this was normal. It was a sign of the sparkling's growth inside of her. Although not necessarily painful, the sensation was strange and unwelcome. At the end of a long day sitting in front of security monitors, her torso and backstruts more often than not ached with soreness and made her excessively grouchy. It probably didn't help either that everyone else on the crew could not experience her exhaustion and pain for themselves, and seemed all together more happy about the situation than what was good for any of them in her opinion. Did these Maximals not realize the hardships bringing a helpless infant online in the middle of a war would pose? Especially now that Megatron knew about her condition. There was no saying how he would try to use that information to his advantage. Not for the first time Dinobot questioned her decision to continue the pregnancy. If it hadn't been for Rattrap's enthusiastic reaction after telling him about their drunken mistake, she wasn't sure what she would have done to fix it. It was not a line of code she often liked to revisit.

In any event, she'd made her decision and the vermin seemed more than pleased with it. He was possibly the worst out of everybody else in his excitement. It was almost odd how quickly the vermin had taken to the idea of becoming a creator. Before that day more than a lunar cycle ago Dinobot never would have suspected Rattrap to be a mech who desired the responsibilities of parenthood. It just didn't seem conducive to what she knew about him and his personality thus far. Yet the rat showed remarkable enthusiasm for the idea. Perhaps it was an act. But then for what ends? Why would he fake excitement for a sparkling he didn't want when she would have happily looked into alternative ways to… expunge them of their little problem without anyone else being the wiser? Considering Rattrap's proud boast to Megatron the other week, however, that didn't seem to be the case.

The vermin was just lucky he was still alive after that little display of stupidity on the battlefield. She'd been ready to kill him after Blackarachnia told her what he'd said. If she wasn't sure the other Maximals would have pulled her back she would have ripped the annoying little spy apart at the joints. It was all because of _him_ she was confined to ship now! She'd refused to even look at Rattrap for two whole days after that. She probably would have ignored him longer if he hadn't made such a desperate point to worm her way back into her company. It was only because it wouldn't have been prudent for her to shut out the sire of the second spark she carried that she'd allowed him access back into her rooms. She'd made sure he'd paid for his mistake well enough too. It was very unlikely Rattrap would ever spout off his mouth about her in front of Megatron like that again if he wanted to survive her wrath. Of that she'd made sure…

Foolish mechs and their idiotic need to assert their masculinity. It was a wonder sometimes how their species had managed to survive as long as it had despite the fact that males held all the wealth and power back on Cybertron. If she was lucky she'd have a femme. Primus only knew how much they needed more intelligent females in the population to save their species from assured self-annihilation…

By now Dinobot was within sight of the bridge. A number of other crewmembers were already there. Airazor and Rhinox were engaged in conversation on the far side of the room, while Blackarachnia, Silverbolt and Cheetor were engrossed with their own individual tasks. Rattrap had left earlier that day with Optimus and Tigatron for a mission to the west. They'd picked up a weak signal the day before that might have been from another stasis pod. The three had gone to investigate it.

Dinobot fought down a surge of anger at the thought. Before, it would have been _her_ that would have accompanied Optimus on such a mission. But now because of her 'condition' she was ship-bound and unable to go. Never had she had to suffer such indignity before. Any warrior worth her fuel would never be asked to stay behind and watch security feeds! A true warrior would be out in the field, ready to go into battle at a moment's notice. Optimus' restrictions were insulting. She did _not _need his or anyone else's codling. Nor did she need anyone telling her what she could or couldn't do, no matter what her condition! She'd fight anyone he threw at her to prove it too. She didn't care if she had to do so in the middle of labor either, because she'd be damned if she was going to let anyone think she was weak.

These angry thoughts continued to swirl inside the back of her processor like an agitated swarm of bees as she stepped onto deck. "Any word from Optimus yet concerning that stasis pod signal we received yesterday?" she said, striding over to Rhinox.

The burly engineer swiveled around in his chair to look at her. "Not yet," he said. "But then again, they only left a few hours ago. They probably aren't even in the right quadrant yet." Without being asked to, Rhinox pulled up a 3-D map of the area they'd received the transmission from as a visual aide.

Dinobot stared at it thoughtfully. "That region is very mountainous with dense, tropical vegetation. The scout party will be lucky to pick up another signal in that area with all the natural interference. They might not be able to find the stasis pod."

"I still say I should have gone with them," Airazor spoke up from beside Rhinox. "I could have done aerial surveillance to see if I could find the pod's crash site."

"That would have been a good idea under normal circumstances," Rhinox interjected, "but, unfortunately, we have to be choosy about who we send on missions anymore outside of our immediate territory. We have to make sure we have enough able-bodied bots around to fend off an attack should Megatron get it in his thick cranial unit to make a second attempt on that gold disk."

Dinobot valiantly ignored the 'able-bodied bot' reference. She didn't need anyone reminding her about her condition. Least of all Rhinox. "How much longer until they reach the transmission point?"

"At least another three hours," Rhinox replied.

Dinobot gave a curt nod. Turning away from Rhinox and the map, she moved off towards one of the empty computer terminals. If the vermin and other two were going to reach the stasis pod's area soon, they were more than likely going to radio back to base before beginning their search in order to double-check their coordinates. Dinobot wanted to be present when they received it.

Unfortunately, before she could reach the computer consol, Silverbolt suddenly leapt to his pedes as she passed behind his chair. "Dinobot, here. Take this terminal. I'm finished using it." He swept his arm out grandly in indication to the chair he'd just vacated.

Dinobot narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the mech's solicitous gesture. "I'm fine. I'll take that one." She thrust her chin out in the direction of the empty terminal on the other side of the bridge.

"Please, I insist," Silverbolt said. "It's improper for a mech to keep his seat when a lady in a condition as delicate as yours is without."

Dinobot froze, every cable in her superstructure going rigid. For a moment, she stared at Silverbolt as though not quite sure to believe what she'd just heard come out of her mouth. "What?" she snarled in a dangerously low voice. By now, everyone else on deck had stopped what they were doing and turned to watch.

Silverbolt seemed unaware of the precarious situation in which he was currently entrenched, and proceeded to dig himself even deeper. "As an expectant femme you must take care not to strain yourself. It is not right that Optimus has kept you on monitor duty when you should be spending your time resting."

"I am not some helpless invalid," Dinobot snarled between clenched dentals. Her hands had curled into fists by her side. Her optics were nothing more than two thin slits of red. "Just because I carry another spark doesn't mean I am incapable of performing such rudimentary tasks like watching security feeds and monitoring comm-link lines."

"I'm not saying you're incapable," Silverbolt insisted. "I'm only saying that you should take more care of yourself and your child. This situation must be stressful on you. You should let us take care of you and help take some of the stress off you."

All the indignant fury that'd been building inside Dinobot for the last two weeks came rushing to the surface like steam released from the insides of a pressure cooker. Her fingers were curled so tightly into the palms of her hands she felt the artificial skin there give under the strain and bleed mech-fluid. "I don't _need_ anyone to take care of me!" Dinobot snarled, her expression murderous. "Let alone by you! I am not some helpless femme that needs to be coddled or sequestered for her own good! You talk about my condition being stressful, but it is you and Optimus' Pit-damned regulations that are stressing me! Stop trying to control me, because I am not going to stand for it anymore!"

With a vicious snarl, she spun on her heels and stalked towards the nearest lift. She punched the activation button so hard she was sure she heard the plastic crack under her fist. The lift's doors slid aside with a hermetic _whoosh_. An alarmed murmur went up amongst the others on the bridge.

Rhinox leapt to his pedes. "Dinobot where are you going? You're not suppose to leave the ship - Optimus' orders!"

Dinobot stepped onto the lift and whipped back around to face out. She leveled her most poisonous glare on him. "Primal can take his cantankerous orders and - as the foul-mouthed vermin would say - shove them up his tail pipe! I am not going to stay here anymore as a prisoner to you ignorant mechs' gross misconceptions of what a female is or is not capable of while carrying. I am not some fragile piece of glass, nor do I need your constant supervision like a helpless sparkling! And if any of you misogynistic Maximals try to stop me I will see to it that whoever follows me comes back to base carrying his own limbs!"

"Dinobot, wait!" Airazor cried.

But the raptor ignored her. With nothing more than a vicious snarl, she lashed her fist out at the control panel. This time the casing wasn't able to withstand the warrioress's assault and crunched inwards under the pressure. A fist-sized crater was left in the wall when Dinobot wrenched her hand back. The lift's doors slowly closed around her and the seething femme dropped out of sight.

Total silence reigned behind her on the bridge.

"What did I do?" Silverbolt finally spoke up. He looked shell-shocked. He plaintively swept his optics around the room, his confused expression like that of a puppy that's been kicked for jumping on his owner when he'd only been trying to greet him. His gaze finally settled on Blackarachnia. The fuzor stared at her beseechingly as if pleading her to somehow explain where he'd gone wrong. "I was only trying to be helpful…"

Blackarachnia at first wanted to ignore him. But then with a defeated sigh she relented. Stupid mech and his woebegone optics. As much as she hated to admit it, she was powerless against them. "I'll go talk to the stupid lizard and see if I can calm her down," she said with a huff and pushed herself out of her chair.

"I'll come with you, " Airazor said, popping out of her seat after Blackarachnia.

"Just get her back here as fast as you can," Rhinox urgently called after them. "She's not suppose to be outside. As much as she'd like to think otherwise, it's too dangerous for her out there."

Dinobot, meanwhile, by now had converted to beast-mode and already put several hundred yards between herself and the Maximal starship. Her teeth were clenched so hard together her jaws ached under the strain. She relished the sensation. The pain was a physical manifestation of the raging storm of anger and frustration inside her. She moved swiftly through the stubbly scrub-grass that'd begun to grow where the quantum surge had scorched the earth bare more than two months before. She didn't know where she was going. She had no set destination in mind. All she knew was that she needed to get away from the Axalon and her jailors, at least for a little while. If she didn't get some time and space to collect her thoughts she was going to go insane or go on a murderous rampage. She wasn't sure which was more likely.

How dare he? How dare that low-RAMed fuzor treat her like a child! And not just him, but everyone else as well! From Rattrap all the way to the other femmes on the crew, everyone treated her as though she was incapable of doing anything! They had no right to treat her any differently than before. She was still the same bot with the same capabilities and skills. Just because she carried a second spark didn't mean she'd suddenly lost all of those things.

Dinobot continued her angry trek across the empty landscape of burnt plains. She knew it was foolish traveling out in the open like she was, but she didn't care. In fact, she relished the idea of being spotted by some passing Predacon. It would give her nothing but the greatest joy to physically take out some of her frustration on another bot. Unfortunately, as the minutes passed she noticed her strength beginning to wane and her body grow sluggish with exhaustion. Dinobot forced herself to ignore the tiredness and push on. For another half mile she continued to walk until the drain on her systems finally became too much and she came to a reluctant stop. Her intakes were labored and her body ached. In beast-mode the pull of the sparkling on her spark chamber felt even heavier.

Standing there, too tired to go any farther and too angry to admit defeat and go back, Dinobot stared irritably into the distance. Yet again she'd been betrayed by her body and the treacherous young spark leeching off her systems. Was there no escaping this miserable situation, she wondered sullenly. Because she wasn't sure how much more of this she could stand to bear by herself.

* * *

"Finally," Blackarachnia sighed as she and Airazor came over a small rise in the land and spotted Dinobot in the distance. The female raptor's tan and brown body stood out brightly against the burnt, charcoal gray color of the surrounding landscape. Her back was to them, her body language stiff and closed off.

"Thank Primus," Airazor sighed where she flew above Blackarachnia in beast-mode. "I was worried she'd already be ten miles ahead of us by now." The falcon swooped lower and together she and Blackarachnia hurried towards the warrioress for fear she'd take off again at the sight of their approach. Dinobot, however, remained where she stood and only turned her head to cast them an annoyed glare as they came closer.

With a sharp flap of her wings, Airazor gracefully lighted on the ground beside the raptor. "What are you doing, Dinobot? You know it's not safe for you to be out like this," she said, waddling awkwardly across the ground until she stood beside the angry warrioress. "What if a Predacon had seen you out here while you were alone?"

"I thought we were going to have to chase you halfway across the continent," Blackarachnia grumbled as she came up on Dinobot's other side. Her multiple legs ached, which she sourly decided to blame on Dinobot.

Dinobot glared down at them, her reptilian green eyes blazing with lingering fury. "I am not going back. Not yet," she snarled. "I will not allow myself to be subjugated by any more of Primal's regulations. They are an affront to my abilities. Being a spark-bearer gives neither Optimus nor anyone else on the crew the right to try and place restrictions on me. I do not need to be protected. I can take care of myself. These antiquated beliefs that femmes are helpless to take care of themselves, especially while carrying, are what made me decide to don mech armor and disguise myself as a male in the first place."

"No one's trying to make you feel like that, Dinobot," Airazor soothed in her most patient, understanding voice. "We just want to make sure you and your sparkling are safe. You are carrying another life which has to be protected. Nothing is more precious than the life of a child. I know it must be difficult on you now, but just think about when your sparkling finally comes online. It will be the most momentous occasion of your entire function."

Dinobot sent Airazor a withering glare out of the corner of her eye. Blackarachnia seconded the motion. The flier's enthusiasm was nauseating in its sappiness.

"Listen," Blackarachnia interrupted before Airazor could inflict any more of her sunshine-and-sparkles on them. "Silverbolt was a complete idiot for what he said, but he meant well enough. The big doof just gets off helping femmes like that. He has some kind of chivalry complex." Turning, she motioned with her front two legs back in the direction they'd come. "Now, if you're done wallowing in self-pity let's get your scaly hide out of here before someone sees you."

"No," Dinobot growled, stubbornly shaking her head. "I am not going back yet."

"Why?" Airazor implored.

With a heavy sigh, Dinobot shifted her weight tiredly between her feet. "Because it is not just Silverbolt and Optimus that frustrate me. It's also the vermin," she sullenly admitted. Unable to hold her agitation in anymore, the raptor began to angrily pace back and forth in front of the other two femmes. "He treats me like a trophy. It's because of him I had to be confined to base in the first place. If he hadn't opened his mouth in front of Megatron like that I wouldn't have to be out here now with a protective escort." She sent Blackarachnia and Airazor both a resentful glare.

"Oh, Rattrap's just excited to be a creator," Airazor chirped. "He wants to show you how much he cares for you and your sparkling. You should let him pamper you."

Dinobot snorted and glanced at Blackarachnia. "What about you, spider? If you were in my position would you let that bird-brained fuzor of yours keep you sequestered inside for your 'own good'?"

If it were physically possible for her in her beast-mode, Blackarachnia would have choked on her own spit. Her diodes froze as though she'd just been caught in a horrible lie. "What are you talking about?" she smoothly deflected.

Dinobot rounded on her, her expression smug and knowing. "Don't try to play the fool. I know you're involved with Silverbolt. I've seen the looks the two of you exchange when you think no one else is looking. You're not as secretive as you think you are."

Airazor visibly perked and looked at Blackarachnia. "Really? You're seeing Silverbolt?" she asked. Her excitement was the same as a school-aged youngling femme.

Both Dinobot and Blackarachnia ignored her.

"Look, I'm not saying we're seeing each other or not," Blackarachnia hesitantly admitted, her mandibles flushing with warmth, "but if we really were together and I got myself pregnant, I'd milk the situation for all it was worth."

Dinobot cocked her head inquisitively to the side, waiting for the other femme to elaborate.

Blackarachnia held her gaze steadily with her own. "It's usually the femme that has to do all the work and suffer all the consequences of spark-bearing. If the mechs wants to do something for us, I say we let them. It's the least they can do, after all."

Dinobot stared at Blackarachnia for a long moment of thoughtful silence as though processing this new take on her situation.

As though seeing this as an opportune moment to speak, Airazor hopped closer to Dinobot. "Come on," she gently urged. "Let's go back to base. It's a long walk back and we've already been out here longer than we should have. The others are probably beginning to worry where we are."

Dinobot hesitated a moment longer, but then with a defeated sigh nodded her head. Together, the three femmes all turned back in the direction of the Axalon.

"Don't worry," Airazor said as she rose into the air with a mighty flap of her wings and took point above Blackarachnia and Dinobot. "You're not alone in this, Dinobot. Anything you need we'll all be here to help you. You have the entire support of the crew."

Although Dinobot said nothing in response and kept her eyes firmly trained ahead, Blackarachnia did not miss the barely noticeable ease of tension between the raptor's shoulder blades and almost tangible dissipation of anxiety around her. Although Blackarachnia would never actually say it, she recognized her own grudging willingness to lend her support to the warrioress through this trial. Primus only knew they femmes needed to stick together in this pitiless world of mechs…

_To be Continued…_

So Talon finally got her mech. She just had to show a little backbone to make Megatron notice her. I couldn't leave my girl hanging, after all.

PLEASE REVIEW! (Your thoughts are appreciated. This little happy family outlook's not going to last for long. It'd just be no fun otherwise…)


	9. Romanticizing Another's Pain

**Chapter Nine: Romanticizing Another's Pain**

With the same deliberate slowness of a predator closing in on its prey, black bishop slid forward to E6.

"Check."

Optimus' optics scanned back and forth across the board. Hesitantly, he moved his white rook forward one space to block the check and protect his king. Across from him, Dinobot grinned. Optimus immediately realized his mistake when the warrioress slid her queen forward from where it'd been hiding on her side of the board all the way up to capture Optimus' rook. Pinned between Dinobot's queen, bishop and rook in the one corner, his king had no more open spaces, nor any other pieces nearby to block Dinobot's check with.

"Checkmate," the warrioress smirked. Optimus gave her the satisfaction of watching him check the board one last time before leaning back in his seat with a defeated sigh.

"Good game," he said with a congenial smile. "You win." He'd expected such an outcome almost from the start. Dinobot had captured his queen and one of his knights early on in the match and he'd been scrambling to stay in the game ever since. He half-suspected Dinobot had chosen to overlook several openings she'd had throughout the match just to draw the game out a little longer.

Dinobot smirked and leaned back in her seat, openly savoring her victory. "That game now puts me decisively in the lead today with three wins and only one loss."

Optimus indulged her by dipping his helm to her. "What can I say? You're very skilled at chess. I must admit, before getting to know you better I was kind of surprised to learn you knew this game."

Dinobot snorted through her nose. "For as primitive as humans are in almost all regards, chess is remarkably sophisticated in the amount of strategy and cunning required to win it. It completely encompasses the essence of strategic warfare. Despite this game's organic origins, I must admit I am besotted with it."

"Would you like to play again?" Optimus offered. Dinobot nodded in acceptance. Together the two began resetting the pieces. These chess games had been a regular habit of theirs long before Dinobot ever revealed herself as a femme. Thinking back, Optimus estimated it was sometime not long after Dinobot joined the Maximals that he'd discovered the warrior's affinity for the game. It'd become a shared pastime for them ever since, but even more so since the start of Dinobot's confinement. Optimus had taken it upon himself to try and reserve at least an hour each solar cycle for their games if for no other reason than to give the warrioress a distraction from her growing restlessness and inactivity. Although he hadn't been present for it he'd heard about Dinobot's breakdown the week before and how she'd stormed off ship against his orders. He hadn't done anything to punish her. Seeing as how her emotions were already stretched to the breaking point, adding more fuel to the fire just didn't seem prudent. Who knew what Dinobot would do if he tried to levy any more restrictions on her. Instead, he'd decided to help Dinobot see out the rest of her confinement in any way he could - even if that meant doing nothing more than devoting one hour of his schedule each day to playing human board games with her.

Almost unconsciously, Optimus' optics strayed to the warrioress's chest. Now five weeks into her pregnancy, Dinobot was finally beginning to show. Although still slight, there was now a more noticeable convex curve to her abdomen starting just beneath her breastplate. With the substitution of a different torso plate and addition of some more body armor, Dinobot could have easily hidden her condition without any of them having been the wiser. At first Optimus had been slightly concerned about the sparkling's apparent lack of development, but Rhinox had assured him everything was well. More than likely the sparkling was just going to take after its sire in size. Considering the disparity in size between Rattrap and Dinobot, if the sparkling _did_ take after Rattrap it was perfectly conceivable to assume that its growth wouldn't have too much of an outward effect on Dinobot's frame. Optimus had already heard several friendly wagers being placed about such banal details concerning Dinobot and Rattrap's sparkling amongst the crew. Although he didn't necessarily approve of betting, there was no denying that a certain air of anticipation had taken hold of the Axalon ever since Dinobot's pregnancy became known.

If Optimus was being honest, he was looking forward to the addition of a new spark amongst them almost as much as everyone else. Despite the less than prime situation they faced and the numerous hardships caring for an infant Cybertronian in the middle of a war would pose, there was no denying the eagerness he felt. In many ways, he was in complete awe of Dinobot's condition. Carried sparks were somewhat of a rarity on Cybertron. Most carriers had their offspring surgically removed and placed into government controlled gestation facilities where the sparkling would mature until it reached a suitable age - usually adolescence - before being brought online. Once online, the youngling would then have all necessary information like language programming, advanced motor skills and social conventions downloaded into its data banks all at once. There was still ongoing controversy amongst medics and scholars about which method was ultimately better for a Cybertronian's early development: natural gestation and gradually acquired knowledge, or medically controlled gestation coupled with one massive data-file of information downloaded in a single packet. The debate had been raging for several millennia now, and still no school of thought had emerged as the clear victor.

Staring at the gentle swell of Dinobot's chest and thinking about the tiny life growing there, Optimus suddenly had the intense urge to reach out and press his hand over her swollen chassis if only to feel for himself the pulse of the second spark she carried. He didn't dare though. He knew Dinobot would not take kindly to such an invasion on her personal space, and he respected her too much to ask.

"Is there something wrong that you feel the need to stare at me in such an obtrusive manner?" Dinobot's voice rattled Optimus out of his thoughts. Her optics were narrowed and her expression tight.

The Maximal leader had the presence of mind to look sheepish. "Forgive me. I was just thinking about how much the sparkling's begun to show on your frame. It must be uncomfortable at times."

Dinobot's dark expression relaxed and she leaned back in her chair with a disgruntled sigh. "I have been uncomfortable ever since this parasite began leeching forty percent of my reserve energy off my systems for its own use," she admitted in a low growl. "It gets worse with each passing day. Some days I want to do nothing more than spend the entire day in my berth recharging. It's pathetic how weak I've become."

Optimus' protective protocols immediately flared to life. "If you feel so badly drained, there's no reason for you to keep reporting for monitor duty, Dinobot. I can easily reassign one of the others do it, or-"

"No," the warrioress snapped. "Monitor duty and communications detail are the only two things I am still able to do to contribute to the war effort. I will not become some charity case for you Maximals. I will continued to earn my keep even if I must drag myself to the bridge and do nothing but stare at computer screens all day."

Dinobot's face was etched so deeply with stubborn determination Optimus dared not try to argue with her anymore. He knew trying to make Dinobot change her mind once she'd made a decision was like trying to go up against a steel-enforced siege door. He'd only earn himself a processor-ache in the end if he tried. But still, his worry for the taciturn warrioress persisted. There's been something he'd been meaning to ask her for the longest time now, and their conversation had finally given him an opening to ask it.

"I know this is a personal question, Dinobot, but what are your true feelings about this sparkling?" Optimus hesitantly broached the question. He had no way of knowing how sensitive a subject this really was with her. "Although I don't morally agree with it, I would have understood your reasons for wanting to terminate this pregnancy."

Dinobot seemed taken aback by Optimus' question and stared at him for several moments of startled silence. Finally, though, with a heavy sigh, she dropped her gaze down to the tabletop. Her shoulders sagged as if she were being pressed under the weight of some heavy burden.

"No," she murmured, her voice suddenly world-weary and tired. "I could not have done that no matter how much I have wished this second spark gone. It was the vermin's and my own carelessness that led to its creation and no one else's fault. It would have been dishonorable to extinguish an innocent life for my own mistake."

"Perhaps," Optimus admitted. "But considering the current situation and the conditions you'd be bringing a new spark into, I doubt anyone would have faulted you for making such a decision."

Dinobot shook her head. "The rodent expressed his desire for the sparkling when I told him of my condition, so I will give him what he wants. It's been decided and there's no way to change that now."

Optimus felt several things clink together in the back of his processor, like puzzle pieces falling into place, and suddenly the unspoken words of Dinobot's explanation became apparent. "You're continuing this pregnancy for Rattrap, aren't you?" he said, realization settling over him like a wet blanket. He was almost stunned by the simplicity of the motivation driving Dinobot's willingness to spark-bear. "You're doing this because you love him and want to give him something that will make him happy."

Dinobot growled deep in the back of her throat, and sharply looked away from him to the side. "Don't try to romanticize what I'm going." Despite the acidic sharpness of her voice, Optimus did not miss the way she no longer seemed able to look him in the optics - as though she were embarrassed to be caught in the act of such an emotional cliché. "The vermin is happy and the matter is closed."

Optimus studied the warrioress for a long moment of silence. "But you're not happy, are you, Dinobot?" he intoned, knowing and sad.

As though some diaphanous veil of misery had been unfurled over her face, Dinobot's expression became agonized and lost. For the first time in all the time he'd known her Optimus finally saw a glimpse of the frightened femme hiding behind the warrioress's cold battle mask of asceticism.

"No," she admitted in a harsh whisper. She bowed her head as though shamed by her confession. "I am not happy. But I'm so conflicted with different emotions I'm not sure how I really feel about this. At first, I was willing to give the rat a sparkling since that was what he said he wanted. But now… now I regret my decision more with each passing turn of the sun. I feel helpless and trapped, but I no longer have any honorable means of escape. Although I chose to see this through on my own accord, in many ways I've come to resent the rodent for my situation. If it wasn't for him I never would have continued this this far. At times I wish I had never told him about my condition in the first place and just had done with it then."

It turned Optimus' tanks to say it, but the stricken look of helplessness on Dinobot's face destroyed almost all the whimsical joy he'd had about spark-bearing before this moment. The depressing reality of Dinobot's plight was far different from the fanciful plots of the romances and recharge tales he'd grown up hearing. "There is still time to end this if you feel you can't go on," he gently whispered. "I could talk to Rhinox for you if you wish. Surely, there must be something we could do to-"

"No," Dinobot hissed, vehemently shaking her head. "As I said before, my decision's been made. I will not go back on my word now. The vermin will have his sparkling. The matter is closed."

"But if you're not going to be happy in the end, then what's the point of continuing?" Optimus asked, desperate to understand the raptor's line of thinking.

Dinobot finally raised her optics from the table to meet his. They speared him like two collapsing stars - brilliant and tragically beautiful as their inner light was swallowed by the darkness of misery and regret.

"Even if I were to terminate this pregnancy now, what would I ultimately gain?" she asked in a spark-wrenchingly hollow voice. "The vermin would never forgive me for taking away his chance of being a creator. Nor would I regain my freedom through such an ignoble act. I would always live with the shame of knowing I had dishonored my commitment to see this through. I might be a soldier - a trained killer - but to extinguish an innocent life that was sparked as a result of my own carelessness would make me nothing more than a common murderer. I would rather fall on my own sword than suffer such dishonor and shame. No, my decision is made. And there's nothing more to be said about it."

Optimus sat frozen in his seat, not sure what to say in the wake of such fatalistic acceptance. What _could_ he say? A part of him was glad to hear Dinobot wouldn't seek out some dangerous method of freeing herself from the responsibilities of spark-bearing, but at the same time he couldn't help but be utterly depressed by the hopelessness in her voice. What would he do if he were in her situation? What would he do if his life as he knew it was about to be shattered into a hundred-million pieces by one careless mistake? How would he consign himself to a life that was no longer his own but one that would be forever tied to another and overshadowed by the responsibility of caring for an unwanted sparkling?

He honestly had no answers. Nor did he have any consolations to ease the warrioress's despair. Did Rattrap know about how Dinobot felt? Did he know how much this was slowly destroying her? But if he did know, the question was if the spy would give up his chance for a progeny to free the warrioress from her misery?

Once again, Optimus didn't know and it killed him to admit there was so very little he could do to help.

Across from him, Dinobot sat hunched in her seat, her optics distant and face shadowed by unhappy thoughts.

His spark ached with sympathy for the once proud warrioress. Optimus desperately racked his processor for something to say. Anything! If only to somehow erase that look of despair from her facial plates. "Would you like to continue playing?" he lamely settled on, motioning with his chin towards the chess board between them. "I will understand if you don't..."

"No," Dinobot said, straightening herself up in her chair. "I could use this distraction even more so now than before. The time we spend together is sometimes the only time I can forget about everything I've lost."

"I'm sorry…" Optimus murmured. He wasn't sure what he was sorry about exactly: Dinobot's situation? Him forcing her to talk about something that was obviously a painful subject? Or him being unable to do anything more useful than play human board games with her when her life was slowly collapsing in on itself around her.

Dinobot dismissed his sympathies with a brusque shake of her helm, neither accepting nor refusing his pity. Without a word, she moved one of her pawns forward two spaces - signaling the start of the game.

Unable to think of anything else to say or do that could possibly be of use to the female raptor, Optimus did the only thing he could: he moved his own pawn forward to meet Dinobot's in the center of the board.

The two lapsed into somber silence for the rest of the game, each lost in his or her own thoughts…

* * *

Later that night, hours after she and Optimus had finished their game and parted ways, Dinobot sat alone in her quarters on the edge of her berth, replaying snatches of her conversation with Optimus over and over again in the back of her head. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't forget the things Optimus had said. Before today, she never would have believed that the great Maximal leader, Optimus Primal, would ever give his personal consent to something as immoral (at least in the Maximals' self-righteous view of the world) as terminating an unborn spark. Nor would she have thought he'd ever actually offer his own support in finding some way to help rid her of her unwanted burden. The concern in his optics and the spark-felt sincerity of his words had almost undid her resolve. She'd only barely been able to stop herself from reaching out and seizing the opportunity of his offered escape like a drowning bot might clutch at a piece of driftwood.

So much of what he'd said touched so painfully close to what she herself already thought. What _would_ she ultimately gain from seeing this through to the end? A future of domesticated servitude. An offspring she had no desire to care for or raise. How was she to earn herself a glorious death on the battlefield if she was bound to a helpless infant? The vermin would surely claim it if she were cut down in battle, but…

The vermin. He was why she was doing this.

No matter how hard she tried to listen to the logic of ending this pitiful farce, thoughts of the rat continued to trump any and all misgivings she had. Whenever she thought about how easy it would be to end it - to run several hundred volts of alternating wavelengths through her system; or starving herself until her systems, in an act of self-preservation, naturally cut off energy flow to the parasite attached to the bottom of her spark chamber - Dinobot was reminded of how Rattrap had looked when she'd told him of her condition. The silent awe in his optics and almost tender way he'd pressed his hand overtop her spark chamber to feel for the tiny pulse of energy growing there immediately derailed any resolve Dinobot might have had to terminate. She hated herself for it. She hated this _weakness_ she'd developed to do what she logically knew was the best course of action_._ But there was no denying she'd come to care for Rattrap in a way that just imagining the disappointment in his optics if she were to take this one chance of being a creator away from him destroyed all her hardened resolve. No matter how much it was slowly killing her inside to continue, she could not bring herself to inflict such pain on her lover. She'd tried to muster the strength to do it - to end this entire charade. But she just couldn't. She cared for him too much to rob him of such simple happiness, even if that happiness did not extend to herself…

The sound of a knock coming from the hatch of her quarters forced Dinobot to shake herself out of her thoughts and raise her head. "Enter," she called. She already knew who it was. Just as expected, the deactivation codes of the locks were entered and the door slid aside to reveal her lover standing on the other side of the threshold.

"Hey, Lizard Lips," Rattrap said, striding into the room. The door hissed shut behind him. "Been lookin' fer ya. Ya weren't in my rooms when I got off duty."

Despite herself, Dinobot felt some of the tension and worries that'd been plaguing her since her conversation with Optimus dissipate at the spy's arrival. "I wish to spend the night in my quarters this evening," she said, straightening herself where she sat to address him. "I find the clutter of that rat's nest you call your living space smothering."

"Yea, yea, yea, I'll clean it ta-morrow," Rattrap flippantly dismissed, coming closer to stand in front of her. With Dinobot seated on the edge of the berth, they were almost eye-level. Leaning down, he reached out and cupped his hand over the swollen bump of Dinobot's breastplate. "How ya feelin' ta-day?" he murmured into her audio. This was one thing Dinobot hadn't been able to get used to since Rattrap became aware of his impending fatherhood: these unexpected moments of tenderness towards her and genuine concern for her well-bring. It was too surreal compared to the way they spent the other ninety percent of their time together.

Dinobot snorted and leaned backwards out of his touch. "Besides the usual exhaustion and increased energon consumption to keep my energy levels stable, I am without complaint," she lied with a dismissive growl.

Rattrap nodded, satisfied, and stepped back from her. "So ya wanna recharge here tonight, ya said?" he asked, already unclipping his pistol from his hip to set aside.

Dinobot did not deign his question worthy of an actual response. She'd already expressed her preference for sleeping quarters that evening. This had become their nightly routine: agreeing whose room they would spent the night in. They'd alternated quarters for some time now. But with the acknowledgement of their relationship to the rest of the crew coupled with the promise of a coming sparkling, it no longer seemed necessary to try and hide the fact they alternated sleeping arrangements each night. After all, it wasn't like everyone didn't already know they shared each other's berth…

Removing the last of his explosives from his forearm compartment, Rattrap moved towards the berth. "Ya know, I've been thinkin,'" he said as he slipped onto the mat and stretched himself out beside Dinobot. The warrioress followed suit and lay down beside him. Her backstruts and torso plate ached, and she eagerly relaxed against the mat. She impatiently waited for the day she was no longer exhausted by doing nothing more than sitting in front of a computer screen or listening to communcation feeds all day. Beside her, Rattrap rolled onto his side and pressed himself close to her - settling his head in the hollow of Dinobot's shoulder guard and stretching one arm out across her stomach with his hand resting over the swell of his unborn sparkling. Dinobot often wondered if the spy's near-constant desire for close contact while laying together in bed was a side effect of his animal-programming or if he just naturally was this needy for physical closeness. "I think we should think 'bout combinin' quarters. Ya know, wit' da sparkling on da way an' everything, it seems only right dat we make our livin' arrangements a lil more permanent, don'cha think?"

Dinobot let this process for a moment before answering. "Are you sure you want to do such a thing, vermin?" she said, trying to keep her immediate distaste for the idea out of her voice. "These rooms are not designed to house two 'bots comfortably." Despite her feelings for the spy, she had no desire to combine living quarters with him. She did not relish the idea of losing her privacy and personal space.

Rattrap shrugged. "We've been doin' pretty well sharin' space so far," he said. "Ya haven't deactivated me yet, at least."

Dinobot fought back the rise of mild panic in the back of her intake line. She didn't like this idea. Not one bit. Yes, she and the rodent shared berths, but that was with the knowledge that if she did not want to share his company she always had the sanctuary of her own rooms to go to and lock him out of. "I'm not sure that would be such a prudent idea…" she murmured.

"Normally, I'd agree wit' ya, but we're havin' a sparkling an' it doesn't seem right fer us not ta make some sorta permanent environment fer it when it comes online." Rattrap must have felt Dinobot stiffen underneath him because he raised his head and added in a reassuring rush, "Look, I'm not sayin' we need ta sparkbond or anything. I'm just sayin' we should try ta make a more normal livin' arrangement fer it. Ya know, somethin' like a real family." The hand on her chest unconsciously began rubbing short, reassuring circles into her torso plate.

Dinobot balked. This was too much too soon. She already felt like she was being backed into a corner, but _this_? It was too much. "I'll think on it," she reluctantly murmured, even though she already knew her feelings on the matter weren't about to change. She just wanted to distract the rodent with false compromises so he wouldn't press her any farther into this tightening noose of domestic incarceration.

The spy seemed satisfied by this and let his head fall back against her shoulder guard. His hand continued to pet and stroke the gentle curve of her breastplate. She could feel his contented smile against her shoulder.

The warrioress lay underneath him stiff with tension. This was becoming too much. Perhaps Optimus was right and she should take matters into her own hands. But what of the vermin? He so openly yearned for this sparkling, how could she gracefully back out of this now? It would completely destroy whatever affections he'd developed for her if she did. Sudden inspiration struck Dinobot. Perhaps there was still a way to escape this despite the sour taste such a tactic left in her mouth. It literally galled her to resort to such antiquated bigotry, but her options were few and she was willing to take any openings available to her.

"Vermin, do you have any preference as to the kind of sparkling you want?" she carefully spoke up.

Rattrap lifted his head from her shoulder again to meet her optics. "Huh? Wha'cha talkin' 'bout?"

Dinobot held his gaze intensely with her own. "My question is if you hold any strong preferences as to whether your progeny is a mech or femme."

The spy blinked at her question. "I've never really thought 'bout it," he admitted with a shrug. "But I guess I'd be happy either way."

"So you wouldn't care if the sparkling I carry is in fact a femme?" Dinobot persisted, her optics narrowed skeptically.

Rattrap thought about it for a moment. "No," he finally answered. Looking down, he wistfully stared at her swollen chassis and rubbed his palm in tight, heavy circles over its stretched metal plates. "I wouldn' mind a lil' femme. I mean, I think it'd be kinda nice ta have a lil' daddy's girl fer a sparkling." He glanced back up at Dinobot and met her gaze. "Maybe one dat looks like you, has my wit an' charm, but none of yer snarly personality," he teased with a coy grin.

Dinobot could not find the willpower to reply with a comeback. She hadn't been expecting such an answer. "So even if I bear you a daughter you would still want to keep it?" she demanded with mounting uncertainty.

"Yea, of course," Rattrap nodded. Studying her for a moment, his expression became serious. "What's it matter?" he asked, his tone suddenly suspicious and worried. "Wha' difference does it make if we have a mech or femme?"

Dinobot heaved a tired sigh and looked away from him. "Because amongst Predacons, fem-sparks are not desired as much as male-sparks since they are traditionally considered the weaker of the two sexes and of less use to society in general. There are ancient protocols involving femme births where the sire of the sparkling can decide to… dispose of any unwanted female progeny if he so chooses. It is a custom that is prevalent even today in modern Predacon culture."

Rattrap stared at her, his expression horrified. "Dat's unbelievable," he breathed. "How could anyone agree ta dat?"

"Femmes have no say in what the sire does with any female progeny they bear him - especially un-bound carriers. A sire can also order a femme to terminate her pregnancy any time he chooses if it is known that the second spark she carries is female. All rights concerning progeny reside with the male," she explained, her tone clipped, formal and simmering with internalized disgust. "_That_ is why I asked you about your feelings towards a potential daughter. I am not familiar with Maximal customs towards female offspring, and wanted to know what the protocol is if I should bear a daughter."

The spy vehemently shook his helm. "Uh ugh," he spat, his hand on Dinobot's chest spreading wide over her chassis in an instinctive display of protection. "I don't care if we have a son or daughter. No kid ov' mine's gonna get scrapped just because ov wha' it is - especially not a lil' fem-spark. Ya've proved it yerself dat being a femme doesn't make ya any less stronger dan a mech."

Dinobot's spark sank. For as heartening as it was to know that Maximals did not share the same antiquated, misogynistic bias towards femmes as her race, she despaired at the knowledge that there truly was no way for her to honorably escape her situation without simultaneously destroying her lover and his affections for her in the process. She was trapped. Nothing could save her now.

Suddenly feeling ill to the coolant tank Dinobot settled against the mat and stared up at the ceiling. Like a piece of space debris hurdling through the cold vacuum of space, she felt unmoored and alone in the uncertainty of her own future. How could she go on? How could she do this? Nothing she'd ever done had prepared her for such a sacrifice. Her life was forfeit. How was she to go on now knowing that she no longer had any hope of regaining the life she once had?

Unaware of the turbulent storm of emotions wreaking havoc on his lover, Rattrap settled himself back against her and took up stroking the swell of her chest again. "I wanna be here when our sparkling comes online," he said, as if just deciding it.

"I don't need you here, vermin," Dinobot murmured. Her voice was distant and devoid of emotion. Her life was already over, so what was the point if the spy was there to see the last remaining shard of her freedom shatter into pieces? "I can manage through a simple birth by myself."

Rattrap shifted even closer, the gentle pulse of his spark thrumming warm and reassuring against her rib struts. "Yea, maybe. But still. I wanna be here. It's my sparkling too an' ya shouldn't have ta go through dis alone."

Silence descended over the room. Without moving himself much from Dinobot's side, Rattrap reached behind him to the wall and deactivated the light controls. The room dimmed into murky darkness. Rattrap curled tightly back against her and released a contented sigh. His hand rested lightly over her spark chamber. As Dinobot lay there, she felt the spy's systems slowly cycle down and his intakes even out. Within minutes he was deep in recharge.

Dinobot continued to stare up through the darkness towards the ceiling, distressingly awake. Her exhausted systems yearned for recharge but her processor refused to cycle down enough for her to slip into a restful state. So this was it. This was what all her years of struggle and hardships had amounted to: a wasted life of warrior training and the lost opportunity to earn herself a glorious entrance into the halls of Valhalla. She'd become what she'd sworn she never would: the breeding vessel of a mech. A glorified slave of domesticated servitude. She would never be able to call herself her own bot again.

Dinobot felt her spark clench into a tiny point of concentrated energy in the center of her chest cavity. Misery and regret warred with each other for dominance in her circuits. It wasn't fair! This wasn't how her life was suppose to turn out. She'd had so many plans. She'd wanted to prove herself able to rise above the social biases leveled upon her sex. She'd wanted her skills to finally be recognized and respected despite her gender. She'd wanted to earn the admiration of her peers and finally earn a place in the upper echelon of society where femmes were barred from entering or holding any power in. But with the events of one drunken night, she'd thrown it all away.

The pressure around Dinobot's spark chamber constricted tightly with a spasm of helpless anger and self-pity. Breaking off her frustrated rant of thoughts, she carefully brushed Rattrap's hand aside from overtop her chest and pressed her own hand down against her spark chamber, trying to ease the tension her emotions were wreaking on her frame. It wouldn't do for her to lose her compose now. She'd already lost so much of her self-respect, breaking down now in the darkness of her own quarters would only add to her humiliation and shame.

She dug her fingers deep into the artificial exo-skin of her chest plate to soothe away the tension. Kneading her knuckles back and forth, the sharp ache slowly began to dull and fade away into the resonant hum of her superstructure. The warrioress was just about to relinquish her ministrations and settle back against the berth again when a new sensation suddenly made itself know. Like a flutter of neuro-electrical backfeed, a warm pulse of energy thrummed against the bottom of her spark chamber. The sensation was neither painful nor excessively noticeable, but it was startling in its strangeness.

Dinobot froze. Her fuel lines ran cold with realization. She knew what this sensation was.

The flutter came again, stronger and more insistent this time as though it were trying to make her acknowledge its presence.

The warrioress sank back against the berth, her hand falling limp against the mat beside her. Rattrap was dead weight against her side. She woodenly stared up into the darkness, her neural processes running a thousand lines of code a second. A surge of mild panic threatened to choke off her intake line.

_No. I don't want this. Go away. Just leave me in peace. At least for a little longer. I'm not ready for this. Not yet…_

But the pulse of her unborn sparkling's lifeforce against the bottom her sparkchamber came again unbidden.

Dinobot felt the remaining edges of her world fracture into a complex pattern of spider web cracks. So this was it. This was the end. There truly was no escape from this bleak fate.

For the rest of the night the warrioress continued to lie staring up at the ceiling - her mind lost in a churning sea of agonized despair no tug of sleep could pull her away from…

_To be continued…_

The custom of female infanticide Dinobot talked about is sadly based off real-life practices that are still carried out today throughout many parts of the Middle East, India and Asia.

Please review.


	10. Words Spoken in Anger

As _Anodythe_ put it best in a review: Dinobot has a lot of whacked out views about things. Many of which are over-exaggerated because she expects worst-case scenarios in almost everything that happens. Blame it on her background. Anyone from such a repressive society, I think, would have a slightly skewed view of the world.

**Chapter Ten: Words Spoken in Anger**

_Ten Days Later_

The sharp chirp of Rattrap's internal chronometer sounded in the back of his audio unit. With a groggy jerk he was startled out of recharge back to consciousness. The spy floundered for a moment before finally sluicing enough neural codes together to silence the incessant pinging near his audios. Laying back against the berthmat to wait for himself to fully wake up, Rattrap glanced at the time on the digital display beside the berth. It was just before dawn.

_It should be a crime ta hafta be up dis early_, he grumbled irritably to himself. He'd never been what some bot's called a 'morning person,' but mornings like this when he knew the sun wasn't even up over the horizon yet somehow made the ordeal of getting out of bed even worse.

With a tired groan, the spy forced himself to sit up. He swayed for a moment in place, still fighting to drive the last remnants of sleep from his processor. Out of the corner of his optic, he glanced at the silent figure of his berth-partner beside him. He was just able to make out Dinobot's features in the dim lighting of the room. The warrioress was still deep in recharge. His alarm hadn't even disturbed her. Rattrap felt his tiredness disappear as he studied her in her sleep. Even in the darkness he could make out the swollen curve of her chassis. Dinobot was now roughly six and a half weeks pregnant. Her chest had expanded several more inches in diameter over the last deca-cycle, giving her the appearance of a typical carrier only four weeks into pregnancy. In another week and a half they would finally welcome their sparkling into the world. Rattrap could barely contain his excitement. In less than eleven solar cycles he would finally be able to hold his progeny in his arms. Eleven days was barely a drop of sand in the hourglass of a Cybertronian's lifespan, but at times it felt like an eternity.

Not even conscious of it, Rattrap reached out and carefully rested his hand over Dinobot's chest. Her spark-pulse beat slow and heavy against his palm. For several moments he felt nothing else. But then, just as he'd been hoping for: he felt a gentle flutter of electrical current pass beneath his hand.

Rattrap grinned. That was his sparkling. That was his tiny progeny he could feel moving beneath his lover's sparkchamber. Even now, almost a week after he first felt the tiny ripple of electronic backfeed underneath his hand, Rattrap still couldn't quite wrap his processor around the full magnitude of it. It was just too much for one bot to take in. He wondered if all expectant fathers were like this: completely enthralled by the idea of this mysterious little creature that would soon be his and share half his genetic code. He'd helped create another life. It was such a fantastic, awe-inspiring concept he was struck speechless every time he thought about it.

It was just a shame Dinobot didn't seem to share the same mesmerized awe for their sparkling as him. If anything, the warrioress seemed completely removed from the situation. The first time he'd felt the flutter of their offspring as they'd laid together in bed one night, he'd been rendered speechless by the physical confirmation of the tiny life growing beneath his lover's sparkchamber. But Dinobot had remained indifferent.

Rubbing his palm in slow, heavy circles against the bowed curve of her breastplate, Rattrap glanced at his lover's face. The pregnancy had begun to take its toll on Dinobot. Always tired, always low on energy, she was only a shade of the fierce warrioress she'd once been. Whether it was from the strain of being confined inside the Axalon or because of the intense physical drain of their sparkling on her systems, Dinobot's facial plates had taken on a weary, almost haunted look over the last few weeks. Although still snappy and abrasive (probably more so now than before because of her pregnancy) a subtle change had come over the ex-Predacon femme. Her facial plates seemed constantly etched with fatigue. Her optics no longer had the same vivacious shine they once did and now seemed duller, less full of life than they did before. Rattrap had noticed that recently she was less willing to rise to the challenge of playful barbs or insults, and more often than not would just ignore him. In some ways she seemed almost… docile. It was like some essential element of the warrioress had been broken and she'd lost her will to fight.

Despite Rattrap's heavy petting Dinobot remained deeply ensconced in sleep. She hadn't even stirred in response to his touch. The spy frowned sadly to himself. Even in recharge Dinobot looked completely exhausted. With their sparkling in its final stage of gestation, its drain on Dinobot's systems had reached an all time high. There were some mornings Dinobot barely seemed able to get out of bed. She always managed to report to duty, which made Rattrap's respect for her double, but she did so with ever-increasing difficulty. He knew this pregnancy had been trying on her - both physically and mentally - but it'd only been within the last week or so that he'd begun to sense this pervading aura of defeat around her. He tried to be supportive and express his enthusiasm for their sparkling every chance he could in hopes of his excitement somehow rubbing off on her, but Dinobot just seemed to shrink farther and farther away from him into herself. He no longer had any idea what to do. He knew something was wrong with her but had no idea what to do to help and didn't feel comfortable enough to ask. With increasing frequency, he felt like nothing more than a superfluous observer to the ongoing miracle of their child's growth. He could only hope that once their sparkling came online Dinobot would regain her former spunk. He missed their verbal spars. It'd become too quiet on the Axalon since Dinobot became pregnant.

Beneath his hand, Rattrap felt his sparkling squirm - the sensation not unlike a newborn puppy moving underneath a heavy blanket. A small smile pulled at his lips. It was restless today. Moving his palm in slow, heavy circles over the apex of Dinobot's swollen sparkchamber the sparkling's movements gradually stilled as though soothed by the pressure of his touch. It wouldn't do for Dinobot to wake up now. She needed all the rest she could get. She could still get several more hours of recharge before she had to report for duty.

Before finding out about Dinobot's pregnancy Rattrap never thought he could feel so strongly about another bot. It was almost overwhelming at times just how protective he'd become of Dinobot and their unborn sparkling. It hadn't even come online yet and already he cared for it in a way he never had another bot before. He already knew without a shadow of a doubt he'd give his life to protect this offspring - something he suspected many of those that knew him would never truly believe. Even Dinobot, despite her bad temperament and disturbing predisposition for violence, had inspired a previously unknown sense of tenderness in him for her. Just watching her sleep - with her swollen chest rising and falling to the gentle rhythm of her intakes - made him want to do everything in his power to keep her protected and safe. Perhaps that feeling stemmed partially from the fact that she was the carrier of his child, but a part of him knew it was because his feelings for her had changed into something deeper and much more complex than lust or simple attraction. Even in the depths of his own mind he refused to use the word he knew would put a proper name to the frighteningly strong storm of emotions roiling inside him, but the sentiment - named or not - was still there nonetheless.

With a sigh, Rattrap removed his hand from Dinobot's chest. As much as he'd like to stay and maybe lay back down Rhinox was waiting for him on the bridge to run some special diagnostics on the ship. Casting his sleeping lover one last yearning look, the spy quietly slipped out of their berth and out of the room.

Just as he'd expected, Rhinox was already there waiting for him when he strode onto the bridge several minutes later. The engineer was seated at one of the ship's consols looking over numerous lines of code on the screen.

"You're late," he rumbled, not even looking away from the monitor as Rattrap plunked himself down into the seat next to him.

Rattrap shrugged. "Eh, my alarm didn' go off. So sue me."

"You knew I wanted to finish this diagnostic before anyone else's shift began. I don't want to have to bypass any systems because they're being used by someone else."

"Look, I'm here now, so let's get started or den we really are gonna hafta bypass systems 'cause ya wasted so much time yellin' at me."

Rhinox heaved an explosive sigh of exasperation, but let the matter drop. For more than an hour the two worked together in comfortable silence, and in less time than they'd originally planned they finished.

Rattrap leaned back in his seat with a tired groan. He made an exaggerated show of stretching out his back cables.

"Rough night?" Rhinox asked, watching Rattrap out of the corner of his optic.

"Eh," the spy shrugged. "These double shifts ov' patrol duty an' short-distance reconnaissance are just gettin' ta be a lil' much, is all."

"Well, with Dinobot taken off active duty there's really not much choice we have in the matter. We were already running with a short crew before, but now besides losing her as an able-bodied crewmember, we have to take extra measures to keep her safe and make sure Megatron doesn't try anything to scrap us all in the meantime."

"I know," Rattrap grimaced. "Choppa'face hasn't let me forget 'bout it yet. But it's only another week or so 'til da sparkling comes, den she can go back ta scrappin' Preds out in da field." The spy couldn't quite keep the excited smile from pulling at the corner of his lips.

Rhinox studied him out of the corner of his optic for a long moment of silence. "I've been meaning to ask you, Rattrap: what exactly are your plans after Dinobot delivers."

Rattrap glanced at him, confused. "What'cha mean?"

"I mean, have you made any plans about how you are going to take care of this sparkling once it comes online?"

"Duh. _Yea_," Rattrap snipped, looking at Rhinox as if he'd just asked the stupidest question in the world. "Me an' Choppa'face are gonna raise it. Simple as dat."

"Have you talked to Dinobot about this? Are you sure that those are her plans too?"

"Look, big guy, I've known ya fer a long time now, so just ask me wha' ya wanna know. I'm not sure what yer tryin' ta get at."

"I'm asking if you're sure Dinobot's going to take such an active role in raising this sparkling as you seem to think she is once she's no longer physically bound to have any dealings with it." Rhinox stared at Rattrap, his gaze penetrating and unnervingly serious. "I'm not sure if you've realized it but Dinobot's not as excited about this sparkling as you are. She might have Maximal activation codes now and fight for our side, but deep down in her circuits she's still a Predacon. She'll always be. She's too steeped in that culture for her to ever break fully away from it, and Predacons aren't exactly known for their warm and caring natures. Right now she's just waiting for this to be over. Who's to say she's not going to completely wash her hands of this sparkling once she delivers?"

"Ya don't know dat!" Rattrap interjected, heated and loud.

"Rattrap," Rhinox sighed, his tone patient as if he were speaking to an extremely slow youngling, "she's a trained soldier. She doesn't have the experience or background necessary to be a good creator. You have to accept the fact that you might have to take on all the responsibilities of this sparkling yourself because I highly doubt she's going to want to have much to do with it."

Rattrap's wires sizzled, all the cable in his neck and shoulder tightening as if preparing for a fight. It was one thing for him to make off-colored jokes about the warrioress but another thing entirely to hear another bot talk about his lover in such a disparaging way. Rhinox might be one of his closest friends, but he understood little about what he and Dinobot shared behind closed doors. "Ya don't know wha' yer talkin' 'bout," he hissed. "Lizard Lips might not be potential Maternal Unit of da Stellar Cycle, but she'll do okay. She's just stressed right now. Dis sparkling's takin' a lot out ov' her. Once she delivers she'll come 'round."

Rhinox, however, seemed unconvinced. "Parental instincts aren't a universal gift, Rattrap. I just don't want you to get your hopes too high and later be caught unawares caring for this sparkling all by yourself."

"I'll do whatever I hafta do fer my kid," the spy growled, his wheel rims quivering against his shoulders, "but I know I'm not gonna hafta do it alone. Choppa'face'll help."

"I truly hope so. For your sake," Rhinox said. As though deciding to drop the matter, the engineer returned his attention back to the computer screen in front of him. Rattrap continued to glare at him, tense and not ready to let this drop just yet. How dare he? How dare Rhinox hint that Dinobot couldn't be a good creator? He didn't know anything about the warrioress.

…but then again, could Rattrap really say he knew for certain what was going through the warrioress's processor? Dinobot was not the easiest bot to read. It was no secret that she hadn't taken well to the initial stages of pregnancy and that with each passing day the strain of it showed more and more on her facial plates. She hadn't said anything in the contrary to wanting to carry their sparkling to term, but was it possible she really _didn't_ want it? Surely she would have made her feelings known if that was the case. She was not one to leave someone uncertain as to what her personal opinions on a matter were. But what if Rhinox was right? What if she really was just waiting to deliver so she could wash her hands of it? Could the warrioress really do such a thing like turn her back on her own progeny? If she didn't want it, she surely would have terminated by now. But, again, what if Rhinox was right? What if Dinobot didn't have what it took inside her to be a good creator? Where would that leave them as lovers? Would he be able to go on without her by his side anymore? Not even the promise of a sparkling could completely banish the wave of fear that crashed over him at the thought. He didn't want to lose her. He didn't know if he'd be able to go on with his life the same way without her strong presence by his side. But neither could he fathom the idea of giving up his sparkling now. He'd grown too enamored with the idea to just forget about it now.

Rattrap probably would have continued deeper down this vein of thought into unknown, unpleasant places but was saved by the timely arrival of two other bots on the bridge.

"Hey, RT! Rhinox! You guys are up early today," Cheetor called as he entered. Optimus followed close behind him.

Rhinox swiveled around in his seat to face them. "We just finished running that diagnostic scan on the Axalon like you asked for, Optimus. Everything appears normal and running to specs."

"That's good to hear," Optimus nodded. "Any word from Tigatron and Airazor? They've been out in the field for almost a week now."

Rhinox nodded. "I picked up a transmission from them late last night. They're heading back to base today. Apparently, they picked up some strange energy readings in the east they can't seem to pin-point with their scanners. They said it seems to move whenever they try to hone in on it. They want to use the ship's equipment to see if they can find out where it's coming from."

"Strange," Optimus murmured. "In any case, they're overdue for a rest at base. I know Airazor will be excited to see Dinobot. She's taken such an interest in her lately."

Rattrap refused to look in Rhinox's direction. The topic of Dinobot still weighed heavily on his processor and he had no desire to see Rhinox's quiet looks of disapproval concerning her.

"On a slightly more pressing point," Optimus went on, "We've been detecting an increase of Predacon movement in sector Gamma-3. It looks like Megatron's up to something out there and I want to know what it is. Cheetor, Rattrap, I want you two to go investigate it."

"Whoa, wait," Rattrap said, swiveling abruptly around in his chair to face Optimus. "Gamma-3's all da way out near da edge ov' our mapped topography of dis continent. It'll take all day ta get out der. Ya promised ya wouldn't send me on any overnight missions until Choppa'face delivered."

Optimus nodded solemnly. "Yes, I know I did, but unfortunately it can't be helped. With Dinobot off the duty roster, our forces are drawn thin. Tigatron and Airazor are already coming in from extended patrol; Blackarachnia, Silverbolt and Rhinox are working on overhauling our defense systems; and I have to wait for Tigatron and Airazor's report about these strange readings they've been getting. You and Cheetor are the only two bots available to go. And it'll only be a two day mission at most. Dinobot's not set to deliver for another week at least. You'll be back in plenty of time for your sparkling's birth, I promise."

Rattrap hesitated. He knew everything Optimus had said was true and completely fair in its reasoning, but that did little to dispel his reluctance to acquiesce to such an order. With Dinobot so close to term he didn't feel comfortable being away from her. He wanted to stay close to her and the sparkling. But like Optimus had said, he and Cheetor were the only two bots available to go.

"Fine," he muttered reluctantly under his breath.

"Thank you," Optimus said, smiling.

Rattrap, however, frowned. He had a feeling Dinobot was _not_ going to be happy about this.

* * *

Dinobot lay on her berth staring up at the ceiling. She'd drifted awake several minutes ago, but still had yet to muster the energy to actually get up. Her fuel lines felt like they were filled with sludge and her entire body felt like it was welded down flat against the berthmat. Rattrap was gone, most likely already on duty. Waking up to find that the spy had already woken up and slipped away unnoticed was becoming more and more of a common occurrence. It was pitiful how low her cognitive processes had sunk that she was no longer even aware when another was moving around her in her sleep.

The warrioress sighed and reached up with one hand to roughly rub her knuckles against her optics. Despite her best attempts a fuzzy ring of static still ringed her visual readouts when she let her hand fall back to the berth. She didn't even have the energy necessary to growl in annoyance which only made her want to growl more in frustration. This was becoming unbearable. She didn't know how much more of this she could stand. Her entire body ached from fatigue. Her processor barely functioned above half-capacity most of the time because of her exhaustion, and her strength was basically nonexistent. With the sparkling's recent growth, her sparkchamber felt pressed uncomfortably tight against the rest of her internal components, and even though she knew she was still unusually trim despite the advanced stage of her pregnancy she felt ungainly and freakishly top-heavy. The pull of the sparkling on her sparkchamber was so strong at times -especially when it twisted or squirmed - that she felt as though her internal parts were being viciously wrenched around and reconfigured inside her.

_A week and a half_, she told herself to steel her self-resolve. _Only one and a half more weeks of this and then I can be done. _But a week and a half felt more like an eternity. As time passed she began to doubt her ability to see this pregnancy through to the end. Nor was she really sure if she _wanted_ her pregnancy to end. Because then instead of only being the unwilling vessel of her lover's progeny she would have a physical, living being to care for and raise. She didn't think she could do it. She didn't want the responsibility. She doubted her ability to bear such a burden the closer and closer she crept to her projected due date. In many ways, she felt like a prisoner awaiting execution: suspended in a near unbearable state of apprehension and dread, but simultaneously yearning for an end to her suspense.

The sound of the door softly opening forced Dinobot away from her thoughts. She pushed herself up to sit and swung her legs down over the side of the berth as Rattrap entered. She didn't want him to see her still laying in bed like a helpless cripple.

"What are you doing back?" she asked and turned on the wall switch. The overhead lights brightened to full capacity. "I could not have slept that late that you are already returning from your shift."

Rattrap seemed startled to find her awake - and was that a look of nervous disappointment in his optics? He didn't make any mention of it though. "Naw," he said, striding inside and shutting the door. "I had ta come back an' grab some more weapons before I left. Optimus wants Cheetor an' me ta check out some Pred movement out in sector Gamma-3."

"Gamma-3? But that's more than a hundred and twenty miles to the southwest. Such a long-range mission will take two, if not three, days. He promised he wouldn't send you that far away until after I delivered."

"I know," Rattrap said, stiffly snatching his extra pistol up from the desk and clipping it to his hip. "Dat's wha' I told him, but he pretty much said I didn't have any choice in da matter."

For reasons Dinobot couldn't properly explain, she felt apprehensive about him leaving - even more so than she did about her approaching delivery date. At least with the rodent nearby she could remind herself why she was doing this. She carefully pushed herself to her pedes to face him. "I don't want you to go," she said. She was slightly startled by the vehemence of her own words.

"I hafta," Rattrap said, grabbing several explosives from where he'd stashed them the night before. He subspaced them into each of his forearm compartments. "Cheetor an' I are da only ones dat can go. Everyone else is busy with other stuff."

Dinobot felt her ire slowly begin to build. This news was unacceptable, and the rodent wasn't doing anything to listen to her or help the situation. By his tone, he sounded as though he'd already decided to acquiesce to their leader's orders. "But Optimus gave us his word!" she spat. "As our commander, he more than anyone else should stand behind his promises. It is not honorable to say you will make concessions for one of your troops and then not follow through with it! Talk to him. Remind him of his obligation to uphold his word."

"I can't!" the spy snapped, his voice rising to meet the frustrated tone of Dinobot's own. He finished packing the last of his detonators and turned to face her, his body tense. "I already agreed ta go."

"And you did not feel it necessary to consult with me about this first?" the warrioress hissed with narrowed optics.

"Why're ya gettin' so worked up 'bout dis?" Rattrap said, lifting and dropping his hands in a gesture of confused exasperation. "Yer still a week away from deliverin.' It's not like I'm gonna be away dat long. I'll be back tomorrow evening at da latest."

"That's not the point!" Dinobot snarled. "Optimus gave us his word and he is backing out of it. It is not right."

"Well, he's got no choice right now. Ever since ya got yerself pregnant da rest ov' us have been havin' ta pick up da slack 'cause ya ain't on active duty anymore."

Every diode in Dinobot's body froze. She was pretty sure her processor just momentarily sputtered and stalled from shock. Rattrap's words continued to echo through her audios even as the steadily mounting roar of mech-fluid rose to drown out any and all other thought.

"Excuse me? Got _myself_ pregnant?" she growled in a fearsome rumble. "The last time I checked it is physically impossible for a single bot to produce offspring. Two inputs are necessary to spark the process, and unless my memory banks are gravely infected by some degenerative neural virus, it was _you_ who was the other bot involved! If it had been any choice of mine I never would have conceived and found myself in this situation. If anything, it is _your_ fault I am like this!"

"Oh yea? How ya figure dat?" Rattrap snapped, antagonistic and challenging.

"It was you that supplied the high-grade when I clearly remember telling you I had no desire for it, which subsequently made both of us disregard basic protective protocols."

"You still drank it!" the spy shot back. "I didn't force ya ta do anything! So don't go tryin' ta blame all dis on me! _I_ wasn't da one dat jumped da other like some kinda backstreet whore."

Dinobot just barely managed to stop herself from lunging at the spy and tearing him apart right then and there. Instead, she stood quivering with rage, her hands clenched tight into two shaking fists. "You foul-smelling, pestilent-riddled vermin," she snarled between clenched teeth. Her entire body shook. Her optics flashed murder. "I never asked for this humiliation and shame. If I could I'd rip this miserable sparkling from my superstructure right now and throw it at your feet. The thought of having your progeny growing inside me and feasting off my systems like some kind of parasitic disease sickens me to my core. I never wanted it, and I want it even less now now that I know what you really think of me."

"Yea? Well, guess wha, Scalebelly, you go right ahead. I was an idiot ta ever think I could have a relationship with a stinkin' Pred. Do ya even know what a relationship is? Can ya even grasp da concept ov' one? I doubt it. All you Predacons think 'bout is yerselves an' what ya can get out ov' a situation. I've been tryin' so hard ta be a good mech an' help see ya through dis, but nothing I do ever seems good enough. I'm sick ov' it! Yer not worth my time or aggravation anymore. I'd ov' been better off just leavin' ya with Megatron. Maybe he could've been able ta stand ya."

The warrioress didn't even get a chance to retort before the spy abruptly spun around on his heels and stormed towards the door. The door wooshed open in front of him. He paused just long enough on the threshold to look back over his shoulder one last time. "Ya know wha? If ya wanna terminate dis pregnancy so badly, den fine! Go ahead! Do whatever ya want with it! I don't care! I'd be scared ta see wha' kind ov' half-breed monster comes out ov' dat empty hole ya call yer sparkchamber anyway. It'd be better off in da long run just being offlined now rather dan havin' ta have you as a creator fer da rest ov' its life."

Then, without another word, his hand shot out and activated the door's controls. The door slid shut behind him with a decisive click.

Dinobot stared at the closed door for several moments of indignant fury, unsure of how to even react in the wake of Rattrap's verbal assault. Unaware of her own actions, she reached out and grabbed the back crossbeam of the desk chair beside her. Using every ounce of strength she had she sent it hurtling across the room. It hit the far wall with a thunderous crack and fell to the floor in several pieces.

She stood in the middle of the room - her chest heaving - staring at the broken pile of debris. Her brief surge of anger had drained an alarmingly large amount of energy from her already taxed systems. Trembling with rage, the warrioress stared at the door her lover had just disappeared. That rat… That disgusting, low-RAMed, poison-tongued rat! Never - _never!_ - did she think she could be hurt by any of Rattrap's comments. Yet each of his words had stung her like lashes from an electrode-barbed whip. How dare he say such things? How _dare_ he? After all she'd given up to give him this sparkling, for him to say such vicious things were like a slap across her face. Never had she felt so degraded and unfairly judged.

Suddenly feeling drained of all her strength, the warrioress sunk onto the edge of the berth - her anger slowly dissipating only to be replaced by a numb sense of emptiness. Her entire body sagged with weariness. A thousand different emotions came crashing down on her like an avalanche. There was anger, humiliation, frustration and an all-encompassing sense of injustice. But also mixed into that broiling storm of emotions was heartache, regret and… fear. Deep, unfettered fear that seemed to coil around her sparkchamber like a physical presence and squeeze. Was this it then? Was this how she and the rodent finally came to pass? Was this how she finally regained her freedom? But at what cost? She'd never wanted to lose the vermin as her lover in the process.

Beneath her sparkchamber the tiny life gestating there squirmed as though it sensing her own agitation. Dinobot pressed her hand down against her swollen chassis, her head bowed in agony. She couldn't do this, she suddenly realized with irrevocable certainty. She couldn't go on. She had to find some way to end this and go back to the way things were before - when she was still her own bot and had a lover to share her berth with her at night.

But the question was: what could she do to make things right again?

To Be Continued


	11. Alone

**Chapter Eleven: Alone**

Rattrap's wheels viciously chewed the ground, putting mile after mile between himself and the Maximals' starship. Cheetor flew beside him half a dozen feet above the ground. His jet engines were a constant drone over the roar of Rattrap's engines. They'd been traveling for several hours now and had already covered several dozen miles. The landscape was flat and made traveling easy. There was no real vegetation to speak of because of the transwarp wave that had scorched the terrain flat several months before. Here and there shoots of green had begun to appear between cracked fissions in the ground, but in general the land was still a charred wasteland of gray. It would probably be several more years before the area completely recovered from the alien explosion.

"_Hey, Rattrap,_" Cheetor's voice crackled over their comm-links. "_You see that stormfront brewing on the horizon? Looks like we're heading straight for it."_

Just as the younger Maximal said, the entire southeastern corner of the sky was painted an ominous shade of purple. Even as Rattrap watched, a thin streak of lightning raced across the underbelly of the approaching stormfront and momentarily illuminated the thunderhead white.

"_What should we do?_" Cheetor asked. _"Should we turn around and head back to base?"_

Rattrap thought for a moment. "Neh," he comm-ed back. "Let's keep goin' fer now. It's still a long ways off, an' it'll probably change directions before we get anywhere near Gamma-3. From wha' I can tell it looks like it's actually headin' more to da east away from us. At most we'll get hit by a light shower from da edge ov' it."

"_You sure, RT? I mean, I don't think Optimus would be mad at us if we went back."_

Rattrap hesitated. If truth be told, he didn't think going back was that bad of an idea either. Traveling in inclement weather was never a good idea. But at the same time he had no desire to be anywhere near Dinobot just yet. Their fight still weighed heavily on his processor and he feared what other things might be said if he didn't give them enough time to cool off. He'd actually surprised himself by some of the things he'd said in the heat of the moment. Once again, he wondered if he wasn't the favorite pet-project of Lady Luck to have made it out of that room alive without Dinobot tearing him apart. If he'd been her, he would have ripped _himself_ a new one for some of the things he'd said.

"Naw. Da boss monkey said it was important we found out wha' Meg's goons're up to out here. If da weather gets really bad we'll turn back. But until we're sure dat storm's really headin' da same direction we are, let's keep goin.'"

"_Alright,_" Cheetor comm-ed back. He sounded hesitant though.

Rattrap ignored his unspoken concerns. His mind was occupied by more pressing matters; like what he was going to say to Dinobot whenever they _did_ return to the Axalon. He had a feeling it was not going to be a happy reunion. Looking back, he realized just how hurtful some of the things he'd said really were. Only Dinobot could work him into such a frothing anger that he'd spout things off like that. It was probably the biggest pitfall of their relationship. They both knew exactly which buttons to push to get the most violent reaction out of the other. It probably hadn't helped that he'd felt so run down lately because of all the extra patrols, early morning diagnostic scans and whatnot he'd had to do in Dinobot's stead because of her lightened work rotation. Then to have her confront him like that - like he actually _wanted_ to go on Optimus' slaggin' mission to some back-region of this dust ball planet - had just brought all his tiredness and frustration bubbling to the top.

Having had enough time to cool his circuits off a bit and mull their fight over in his head, he wished he could take back some of the things he'd said. Although his frustration had been true enough at the time - especially about him trying to take on the role of responsible father-to-be while Dinobot remained disturbingly indifferent towards everything despite his best attempts - he'd meant almost nothing else. Everything had been said in mindless, misguided anger. He had no desire to lose their sparkling, or for them to end their relationship. They'd come too far and shared too many hardships to just turn their backs on each other now. Just the thought of no longer having the warrioress beside him at night as they recharged or feeling their sparkling's spark-pulse flutter underneath his hand sent an agonized jolt of loss through his system.

He shouldn't have said those things. He should've just held his glossa and left. Why did he _always_ have to get the last word in? Why couldn't he just for _once_ keep his big mouth shut?

In some ways he still felt slightly justified in standing up to Dinobot. He'd been doing everything in his power to help her through this and all he'd gotten in return were snarls and sullen apathy. He knew the idea of motherhood still didn't sit well with the ex-Predacon warrioress, but that didn't mean she had the right to blame everything on him. She'd been just as much an eager participant that night as he'd been and had to accept the consequences of it the same as him.

Looking back, Rattrap supposed this fight had been a while in coming. They'd been treading too carefully around each other ever since Dinobot told him about her pregnancy. He because she was the carrier of his progeny and he hadn't wanted to aggravate her in her steadily weakening state; and Dinobot because…

Honestly, Rattrap didn't know why the warrioress had been so quiet lately. Before her pregnancy the two of them could barely go two days without some kind of argument flaring up between them. Dinobot wasn't one to keep any problems she had with him to herself. Yet the vehemence which she'd countered him with hadn't sounded like words spoken in mindless anger, but rather spark-felt sentiments she'd been keeping internalized and secret for longer than Rattrap felt comfortable estimating. This had been a fight unlike any they'd had before. It hadn't been one meant simply annoy or frustrate the other. This fight had been serious. The hatred with which she'd talked about the sparkling had been too vehement for Rattrap to simply dismiss as the product of overwrought emotions. It'd rung too much with the razor-sharp note of honesty…

A cold chill ran down the length of his spinal column with a sudden, frightening thought. Had Dinobot been serious when she said she didn't want this sparkling? Sure, he'd had his suspicions that she was less than eager to become a maternal unit, but had she been serious when she'd said she wanted to terminate? The thought left Rattrap feeling distinctly uneasy. What if she really had been serious? What if he'd just given her the permission she'd been waiting for to end this? What if he returned to base and found out that she'd done something to the sparkling while he was gone? What if-?

"_Hey, Rattrap, I just picked up a several foreign energy signatures about three miles east of here,"_ Cheetor's voice crackled in his audio. The transmission was laced with a faint undercurrent of static - most likely because of the approaching storm.

Rattrap realized that at some point while he'd been lost in thought he and Cheetor had left the barren plains and entered the more hilly outskirts of Gamma-3. It was amazing how quickly time seemed to pass when one's processor was preoccupied. He'd have to push thoughts of Dinobot from his mind for now though. The faster he and Cheetor finished their business out here the quicker he could return to base and try to salvage whatever remained of his and Dinobot's relationship. Assuming she didn't try to deactivate him the moment he stepped onboard, that was. It was a possibility he hadn't completely ruled out just yet.

"Let's go check it out," Rattrap called into the link. Together, the two veered to the right. For several minutes they wove their way through the hilly landscape. The farther they went the more rugged and steep the land became. Rattrap soon picked up the enemy energy signals Cheetor had talked about on his own scanners. They were coming from the other side of the rise directly in front of them. Skidding to a halt he transformed into his bi-pedal form - a blaster already in hand. Cheetor immediately followed suit.

A light drizzle had begun to fall.

"Great place for an ambush," Cheetor whispered as the two of them quietly advanced on the energy signals' source. Several of the surrounding hills were higher and provided perfect vantage points from which to launch an attack if they were spotted.

"Keep quiet, kid, or you'll jinx us," Rattrap hissed. "We don't wanna let any Preds know we're in da area before we start openin' fire on 'em."

Somewhere in the near-distance, a low roll of thunder sounded. The edge of the stormfront had begun to creep in overhead. It moved steadily forward, like a broiling black shroud being draw across the sky by some primordial deity of malcontent. The light had taken on a strange, grainy, purple-gray quality.

Within minutes, the two reached the top of the hill and looked down over the side. An open space of land lay between the slopes of theirs and two adjacent hills. In the middle of the dirt-crusted field was what appeared to be some kind of small jamming tower or homing beacon. It was difficult to say for sure which from a distance. It stood a dozen feet tall and was only in its preliminary stage of construction. A flash of lightning lit the sky and momentarily illuminated its skeletal framework. Beneath the tower sat a pile of steel beams, wires and other construction material, along with two assemblers: Waspinator and Quickstrike. The two were currently engaged in adding an additional support beam to the lower tier of the device. The rain had begun to fall faster, yet the two continued to work undeterred. Rattrap didn't miss, though, the worried glance each Predacon gave over his shoulder as a deafening crack of thunder sounded somewhere nearby.

"What is that?" Cheetor whispered over the hiss of rain.

"Dun' know," Rattrap murmured. "Almost looks like a jammin' tower ov' some sort, but wha' would da Preds wanna build it for? Der's no radio signals out here fer 'em ta jam."

"Maybe it's a signal transmitter?" Cheetor suggested.

Rattrap shook his head. "Who would dey be tryin' ta signal? Der's no other intelligent life on dis planet dat could pick it up except fer us, an' ya know if Megatron went to da trouble of buildin' one all da way out here it's 'cause he didn't want us findin' out about it. Plus, it's too low to da ground. If dey were gonna transmit anything they'd ov' built it higher up on one ov' da hills, not in da middle ov' a valley."

Cheetor stared at the metal contraption with a troubled expression. "What do we do with it? We can't let them finish it - whatever it is…"

"Wha'dya think we do?" Rattrap said with a decidedly evil smirk. He slowly drew his blaster up level with his shoulder. "We blast it."

There was no protest from the younger Maximal about this, and together the two took aim. With sniper-like precision they opened fire on the unsuspecting Predacons. Their blaster shots streaked brightly through the misty veils of rain.

Waspinator gave a startled cry as one shot pinged against the steel strut immediately to the left of his head. Dropping the beam in his hand, the flier ducked behind the nearest of the tower's support beams and returned fire.

"Wha' in darn-ation?" Quickstrike shouted as he too took cover and wildly shot in Cheetor and Rattrap's direction. Unfortunately, because of the two's higher vantage point the fuzor couldn't seem to pin-point exactly where the enemy fire was coming from and ended up missing their location by several paces. Laserfire pattered the side of the hill in wet, hissing slaps.

Rattrap grinned. It probably wasn't the most Maximal-like thing to say, but this was kind of fun. Watching them scramble to retaliate was almost comical in its absurdity. Waspinator and Quickstrike, in Rattrap's opinion, had never been Megatron's smartest lackeys, which was probably why the warlord had chosen to send them in particular to this desolate corner of the planet. No doubt Megatron hadn't been expecting them to come up against any problems. Well, the joke was on old Grapeface, because Rattrap was going to make sure he sent the two insects scurrying back to base with their proverbial tails tucked between their legs and carrying the smoldering remains of Megatron's tower in their hands. If blasting Preds and ruining Megatron's plans wasn't a stress-reliever then Rattrap didn't know what was.

"Watch yer optics, kid," Rattrap said as he drew an explosive blast cap from his forearm's subspace compartment. With a flick of his thumb, he activated it. "Fire in da hole!" he yelled and lobbed the grenade over the side of the hill. He and Cheetor flattened themselves against the ground and covered their heads.

"No!" Waspinator's plaintive voice warbled before it was swallowed by the roar of the bomb's explosion. There was a blinding flash of light followed immediately by a searing wave of heat that rolled up the side of the hill and over the two Maximals. Rattrap and Cheetor hunkered down lower.

Almost as quickly as the flash had come, it faded away again. Rattrap's audios buzzed as he cautiously lifted his head from the ground. A thick pillar of smoke curled up into the drizzly gray sky. Scooting himself closer to the edge of the hill, the spy glanced over the side. The center of field was little more than a smoking crater. All that remained of the Predacon tower was a pile of heat-twisted lengths of blackened steel. Waspinator lay in a crumpled heap off to the far side, as if he'd been tossed there by the force of the explosion. Quickstrike was nowhere to be seen. More than likely he'd managed to slip away before the explosion and was already scurrying back to base.

"Nice aim," Cheetor whistled appreciatively at the devastation.

"Dat was a lot easier den I was expectin,'" Rattrap said with a cocky grin. "Maybe I should try bringin' out da explosives earlier from now on fights. It'd sure save us a lot'v unnecessary fire power dat way."

"You think we should go down and see what they were trying to built?"

Rattrap shrugged. "Might as well. Da big ape'd probably pitch a fit if we didn't try ta figure out wha' Megs is up to."

The smoke had already begun to dissipate by the time Rattrap and Cheetor made their way to the bottom. The storm's light drizzle had since progressed into fat, heavy drops that pinged against their exo-armor like globs of wet tar. A strong wind had begun to stir the air, and the ground was already becoming a soupy mess that seeped up into their joints between the seams of their pedes. Thunder rumbled almost directly overhead, but otherwise the area had taken on an ominous calm. Keeping one optic on Waspinator's motionless body in case the flier suddenly came back online, Rattrap made his way to the tower's charred remains. Carefully, he knelt down on one knee and began shifting through the debris for any clue as to what it was he'd just destroyed. The metal was still slightly hot to the touch despite the chilly rain.

"So what is it?" Cheetor asked, stepping up behind him.

"I have no idea," Rattrap admitted, shaking his head. He held a line of half-melted cables in his hand. "I'd almost say it was some kind ov' signal-relay, but da design is completely wrong fer something like dat. I've got no clue wha' dey were tryin' ta do with dis stuff." Heaving a disgruntled sigh, Rattrap stood again and reached up to the side of his helm to activate his long-range comm-link.

"Rattrap ta base. Come in. Over."

There was a long hiss of static before the spy heard the other side of the line pick up. "_Axalon here_," a deep female voice answered. It was Dinobot.

_Aw, great, _Rattrap inwardly cursed. _Just who I wanted ta be talkin' to right now._ He should have known though. One of Dinobot's few remaining duties was communications detail. There would have been very little chance of him getting any other crewmember to pick up the line first. Rattrap decided to push personal feelings aside for the moment and be as civil as possible if only to do his duty and be done with it. He'd deal with the aftermath of their fight later once he returned to base and could talk properly with her face to face.

"Choppa'face, tell Optimus dat Cheetor an' I came across Waspinator an' Quickstrike just over da border of Gamma-3. Dey were building some kind ov' tower out here - we don't know fer what exactly. We hadta destroy it."

"_Any injuries?_" Dinobot's voice came back, clipped and formal. Rattrap could tell by the tightness of her voice that a vat a simmering rage still brewed inside her.

Rattrap kept his tone civil. For as bad as he felt about some of the things he'd said before leaving base, he hadn't forgotten Dinobot's own words just yet. "Naw," he replied. "We took out Waspinator, but he still looks functional. We're not sure where dat scorpion fuzor went though."

"_Do you require any reinforcements?_"

"No."

There was a pause from the other side of the line as if Dinobot was consulting with someone. "_Report immediately back to base for debriefing. Optimus' orders._" Rattrap didn't miss the ironic undertone of the last part of Dinobot's message.

The spy took a calming intake. He knew he shouldn't try to do this over a comm-link line, but he felt like something had to be said even if it did no other good than ease some of his own guilt and irrational fears. "Listen, Choppa'face, about before… I know yer probably still pretty slagged off 'bout wha' I said but-"

A staticky snarl cut him off. "_You would do well to remember that it is not proper for personal matters to be discussed over long-range communication lines that anyone with a Maximal frequency can pick up."_

Rattrap winced. Oh yeah. She was still slagged off at him…

"Listen, Lizard Lips, I didn't mean wha' I said before, okay? Just let me get back ta base an' we'll talk 'bout it - _calmly_ this time. I promise." It burned him inside to swallow his pride and take the higher moral road like this, but given his lover's vindictive nature he was willing to admit his fault in this this one time, if only to assure his safe arrival back to base.

"_I have absolutely nothing I wish to discuss with you,_" Dinobot's voice snapped. "_You've already made it perfectly clear that I am no longer worth any of your concern, and I do not appreciate being lied to about it now. You are freed of any obligations to me."_

Rattrap's coolant tank churned with mounting frustration. "I'm not lyin' ta ya! Listen, I'm headin' back now. We'll talk more den. Just don't do anything stupid before I get back, okay?"

"_Why would I want to speak to you?"_ Dinobot snarled. It looked like whatever sense of decorum she'd had about personal matters not being discussed over open communication lines had been promptly thrown out the airlock. "_You made it perfectly clear you no longer want any kind of dealings with someone of Predacon descent."_

The spy wearily massaged the pinch of metal between his optics. Why did _everything_ have to be so slaggin' difficult with her? He was trying to, in his own way, apologize and she just kept shooting him down before he could even get off the ground.

"I told'ja I didn't mean any ov' dat! Why won'cha listen ta me?"

Unfortunately, Dinobot's response went unheard. For just at that moment, out of the corner of Rattrap's optic he saw a yellow and teal figure appear through the driving sheets of rain half a dozen paces to his right and stretch one arm out towards him. The metallic red eyes of the outstretched cobra head glinted evilly in a sudden flash of lightning overhead. "Take this yar darn Maximals!"

"Rattrap, watch out!" Cheetor yelled behind him.

With reflexes quicker than Rattrap thought he actually possessed, he threw himself to the side just as a bolt of laser fire exploded from the end of Quickstrike's arm. His reflexes, however, weren't quite fast enough it seemed as the shot slammed against the back of his right shoulder. Pain exploded across his back and flared white in his optics. He felt himself pitch forward and watched as the ground rushed up to meet him as if in slow motion. He hit the ground hard, mud splashing up around him. Several warning boxes popped up across his visual readout, flashing urgently. Even though he couldn't see it, he knew his back was a mutilated mess. He could feel the icy rain seeping through the edges of his torn superstructure and onto the exposed circuit boards and neural lines below. Pain like acidic fire coursed through his entire back. Rattrap felt something deep inside him make a disturbing _pop_ as a small shower of sparks leapt up over the edges of the wound. The warning boxes flashed faster. He could feel himself steadily slipping closer towards stasis lock.

"Aw, slag…" he swore in a choked off rasp. This just wasn't turning out to be his day.

Just before his optics dimmed and darkness rushed up to swallow him in its inky embrace, the last thing Rattrap was aware of was an ominous roll of thunder somewhere high above him and the icy splash of raindrops on his back.

His visual readout flickered. And then, there was nothing…

* * *

_Twenty Minutes Earlier_

Dinobot silently watched as the image on the computer screen cycled back to the beginning of the security cameras' feed-loop. Image after grainy, black-and-white image trolled across the monitor in slow, monotonous order. First an outside shot of the Axalon's rear loading ramp, then one of the lifts, which was followed by one from the top of one of the ship's upper gun turrets, then four sequential shots looking out from beneath the ship in all four cardinal directions, and finally a long run of images from more than two dozen video cameras mounted at different points around the Axalon's outer perimeter. All of them were stationary and usually shot from a high vantage point. In the several hours she'd been watching them Dinobot hadn't seen anyone - Maximal or Predacon - register on screen. Not even a single organic life form had wandered past! Even though Dinobot did her duty with the same determination and focus she would carry out any other order, there was no denying she was as bored to recharge as one could physically be without actually slipping offline.

The control room was quite despite the other three bots on-bridge. Behind her, Optimus, Airazor and Tigatron were huddled together around the holo-table looking over a 3D topographical map. The hushed murmur of their voices was a calming white noise to the agitated storm of thoughts in her head.

Even now, several hours after Rattrap and Cheetor left base, she still hadn't been able to push her fight with the spy completely from her mind. Just the thought of the rat made her internal gears grind and her fuel lines run hot. He was probably actually lucky he'd left when he did, because if he'd stayed any longer she might have done something worse than just throw a chair against the wall.

The security feed shuffled back to the beginning of the loop, rewarding Dinobot yet again with a grainy image of the ship's rear doors. The warrioress grit her teeth together in silent bitterness. Her talents were being wasted here. She shouldn't be sitting in front of a computer screen, but rather out in the field hunting down enemy combatants like the rest of her comrades. Without realizing it, Dinobot's hand strayed to the distended swell of her chest.

It was because of this thing she couldn't be out there now. It was because of this sparkling that she'd been relegated to permanent monitor duty since that was all she seemed able to do anymore. If she hadn't been cursed with such unlucky circumstances she might still have a lover and a future that promised a glorious death on the battlefield. But both those things were gone now - stolen away by this unwanted thing growing in her chest and siphoning away her strength like a leech. It disgusted her. She wanted it _gone!_ Now that the vermin no longer wanted it, there was no reason for her to continue suffering anymore. She was free!

Yet… she hesitated.

She wanted this sparkling even less now than she did before if that were physically possible. In fact, she knew she could be done with it this very evening if she so desired. A quick jolt of several thousand volts of electricity would be enough to free her of this unwanted burden.

A part of her knew it was her sense of honor that was making her balk. She'd sworn to see this pregnancy through to the end despite her feelings about it. She hadn't lied when she'd told Optimus it would disgrace her honor if she extinguished an innocent life when it had been her mistakes that had led to its conception. Another part of her also worried how the rest of the crew would look on her if they learned she'd terminated her pregnancy herself now so late in gestation. She doubted it was something that would go over well with the soft-sparked group of Maximals despite Rattrap relinquishing his claim on the sparkling.

Yet all of that, she knew, wasn't the real reason she hesitated. She didn't want this sparkling. She wanted her former life back. She wanted to feel the rush of mech-fluid she experienced every time she ran into battle; she wanted to taste the thrill of bloodshed once more.

But she also knew the feel of a lover's touch now; and the calming sense of peace she got whenever she lay beside the rat at night with his smaller body molded against her side and his head nestled in the hollow of her shoulder. She wanted those things back as well. She missed her and Rattrap's meaningless quarrels. She missed the way they constantly tried to outwit each other with words and verbal barbs. It was their private game that made life aboard the Axalon interesting. Nor was Dinobot too proud to admit in the farthest corners of her processor that she'd come to enjoy the spy's sneaky gropes and touches, no matter how much she made a show of proclaiming otherwise. Despite the warrioress's disinclinations towards forming a permanent bond with another bot which would prevent her from ever earning a glorious death in battle, she wanted to keep Rattrap by her side for as long as possible. In many ways she'd begun to see him as hers, and she had no interest in losing him if there was something in her power to prevent it. That was the only reason she'd ever agreed to carry this sparkling to term.

Perhaps that was it. Maybe that was why she couldn't bring herself to start making a mental checklist of what she needed to do to end this: she still held out hope of the rat returning and reclaiming her as his lover. Some small part deep inside her still wanted to use this sparkling as a way to tie the spy to her.

That didn't mean she'd forgotten about her fight with Rattrap yet though. Some of the things he'd said were unforgivable, and she was going to see to it that the vermin paid for his insults whenever he finally returned to base. No one called her a whore and went unpunished, or accused her of being selfish after she'd just given up basically _everything_ she had so he could have a progeny of his own. If that fight was like any of their other ones and the vermin wished to make up afterwards, then she was going to make him work for her forgiveness. It was going to be a long and painful road before she let him anywhere near her again. Of that she was going to make _very_ sure…

The sound of others arriving on bridge brought Dinobot out of her thoughts. On the far side of the room Rhinox entered, followed closely by Silverbolt and Blackarachnia. Each of their superstructures sported streaks of grease and grime like war paint.

"How'd the overhaul of the defenses go?" Optimus called.

"Fine," Rhinox replied. "Took a little longer than expected, but we finally got all the bugs worked out. We're going to give it a test run within the hour."

Optimus nodded. "Sounds good. I was just debriefing Airazor and Tigatron about that strange energy signal they've been picking up recently. Want to come give us your opinion on it?"

As Rhinox went over to look at the map with Optimus, Silverbolt and Blackarachnia wandered away to the nearest computer stations. Dinobot was slightly annoyed when Blackarachnia chose to drop down in front of the one directly beside her own. The warrioress pointedly refused to acknowledge the other's femme's presence as the black widow turned on the computer and waited for it to warm up. She could see her scrutinizing her out of the corner of her optic.

Finally, Blackarachnia spoke. "What's got your wires in a twist today? You look even more like slag than you usually do."

Dinobot grit her teeth as she slowly turned her head to glare at the smirking spider. "That would be none of your business," she growled.

Blackarachnia smirked. "Fight with your boyfriend?" Dinobot hated the knowing, teasing tone she used. Ever since Airazor and Blackarachnia chased after her that one day she stormed off ship, the spider had begun to instigate little conversations like these. Most often they were meaningless and full of sarcasm and back-handed comments which Dinobot found slightly reminiscent of her verbal spars with Rattrap, but different in the way that they were more openly playful and meant to poke fun at her more than anything else in a subtle, much more feminine sort of way.

Dinobot refused to answer the question which the other femme seemed to take as unspoken admission. "I saw him before he left with the kitten," Blackarachnia went on unperturbed. "He looked as if he was ready to blow up anything in his path."

Dinobot growled low underneath her intakes. "That pestilent rodent can go blow himself up for all I care."

"So you two did have a fight," Blackarachnia said. Again, Dinobot refused to answer and intently stared at the slideshow of images on her monitor as if she truly expected to see Megatron come strolling across one at any moment. Blackarachnia swiveled her chair around and studied Dinobot for a long moment of silence, her head cocked slightly to one side. "It's a shame, I guess. It's been so quiet around here I was starting to get used to the lack of you two yelling at each other."

"My humblest apologies for disturbing your peace and quiet," Dinobot said, her voice flat and heavy with sarcasm. "But you might be glad to know that that might very well have been the last one you'll ever have to see the aftermath of."

Blackarachnia blinked in surprise. All traces of playfulness slipped away from her face. "You mean you two broke up? Even with…" she trailed off with a meaningful glance at Dinobot's chest.

Dinobot kept her optics firmly trained on the security feed in front of her. "Yes."

"What happened?" The question was honest and tinged with confusion.

"Apparently, the vermin no longer wishes to carry on a relationship with someone of Predacon descent. Nor does it seem he want a progeny that shares such a heritage." Although Dinobot didn't turn to look at Blackarachnia, she sensed the other femme tense in her seat.

"Really?"

Dinobot just nodded stiffly in response.

With a snort, Blackarachnia leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms darkly across her chest. Her optics were narrowed and burned with open disgust. "I always thought you were too good for that stinky rat. This just proves it. You're better off without him."

Dinobot was surprised how strongly Blackarachnia's words affected her. After mulling over hers and Rattrap's fight for several hours now, the black widow's declaration was like a soothing balm to the lingering sting of the spy's words.

Pinning Dinobot with a serious stare, Blackarachnia leaned forward in her chair. Her optics strayed to the swollen curve of Dinobot's chest. "What are you going to do about… your condition? Since the rat doesn't want it anymore, are you still going to keep the sparkling?"

A sickening feeling similar to nausea settled in the pit of Dinobot's coolant tank. Suddenly feeling tired and world-weary, she leaned back in her seat and let her shoulders sag under the weight of everything that'd happened in last few hours. "I don't know…" she admitted in a hushed voice. "I haven't decided yet." She couldn't bring herself to look up and meet Blackarachnia's optics. She didn't want to let the spider see just how weak she'd become.

The black widow sat silently in her seat, staring at her with an unreadable look. With a heavy sigh she turned her attention back to the computer which had finally finished powering up. "I still say you're better off without him," she murmured under her breath, vehement and inexplicably angered.

Dinobot glanced at Blackarachnia out of the corner of her optic. If she didn't know better she would have almost said the black widow was speaking from the spark - as though she actually cared enough to sympathize with Dinobot's side of the issue. It was a novel concept considering the fact Blackarachnia never cared about anyone else's personal affairs. The idea left Dinobot feeling decidedly uneasy. She'd never had another bot come to her defense like that before, and she wasn't sure what she should do in response.

Luckily, she was saved from partaking of any foreign social interactions by a sharp ping from her computer consol signaling an incoming radio transmission. As she fine-tuned the frequency, a garbled voice full of static came over the line. "_Rattrap ta base. Come in. Over._"

The others on the bridge stopped what they were doing and quieted to listen in. Dinobot, however, stiffened in her seat, scowling with dismay. Although she'd known Rattrap and Cheetor would at some point have to check in, she'd been secretly hoping it would be Cheetor that handled the call. Memories of their fight were still much too fresh in her memory banks for her to want to speak to her estranged lover just yet.

Nevertheless, she had a job to do and she was obligated to do it, no matter how distasteful the assignment.

"Axalon here," Dinobot replied into the link. She struggled to keep her voice emotionless and cool. As much as she might have wished otherwise, now was not the time to confront the rat about their fight.

There was a long pause of silence from the other end of the line before the spy's voice crackled through the speaker. "_Choppa'face, tell Optimus dat Cheetor an' I came across Waspinator an' Quickstrike just over da border of Gamma-3. Dey were building some kind ov' tower out here - we don't know fer what exactly. We hadta destroy it."_

"Any injuries?" Dinobot asked. She thought she'd detected the sound of rain and distant thunder in the background of the transmission.

"_Naw. We took out Waspinator, but he still looks functional. We're not sure where dat scorpion fuzor went though_." The comm-link line crackled with interference. Dinobot was now certain it was rain she heard on his side of the line. They must have encountered an unexpected end-of-season storm.

"Do you require any reinforcements?"

"_No_."

From the other side of the bridge, Optimus spoke up. "Tell Rattrap and Cheetor to head back. It sounds like they ran into some unfriendly weather out there. If they destroyed the tower and Quickstrike already got away, then there's no reason for them to stay there any longer."

Dinobot nodded stiffly and turned back to the consol. She still hadn't forgotten that it had been Optimus who'd ordered Rattrap on this long-range mission which had sparked their entire fight. She didn't feel it was too off-base to blame him - at least in part - for their current estrangement. "Report immediately back to base for debriefing. Optimus' orders_,_" she said into the microphone.

There was a short pause followed by a heavy sigh from the other end. "_Listen, Choppa'face, about before… I know yer probably still pretty slagged off 'bout wha' I said but_-"

At the mention of their fight, a fresh surge of rage rose up inside Dinobot. Not only did she not want to discuss it right now, she also had no desire for the others present to overhear. She was unable to stop the vicious snarl that exploded from her mouth. "You would do well to remember that it is not proper for personal matters to be discussed over long-range communication lines that anyone with a Maximal frequency can pick up." Beside her, Blackarachnia re-crossed her arms and scowled at the computer consol as if the comm-link line could somehow transmit her glare to the mech on the other side of it.

"_Listen, Lizard Lips, I didn't mean wha' I said before, okay? Just let me get back ta base an' we'll talk 'bout it - calmly this time. I promise_."

"I have absolutely nothing I wish to discuss with you," Dinobot's voice snapped. She no longer cared if the others could hear their conversation. "You've already made it perfectly clear that I am no longer worth any of your concern, and I do not appreciate being lied to about it now. You are freed of any obligations to me."

"_I'm not lyin' ta ya!_" There was an audio-splitting squeal of backfeed from the speaker._ "Listen, I'm headin' back now. We'll talk more den. Just don't do anything stupid before I get back, okay?_" Despite Dinobot's anger, she did not miss the spy's desperate, almost pleading tone. Did he truly regret the things he'd said? Even if he did, though, Dinobot wasn't about to back down anytime soon. She was still bitterly resolved to see to it that Rattrap paid for the disrespect he'd shown her. Her honor demanded it.

"Why would I want to speak to you?" she snarled into the link. "You made it perfectly clear you no longer want any kind of dealings with someone of Predacon descent."

An explosive sigh of exasperation. "_I told'ja I didn't mean any ov' dat! Why won'cha listen ta me?_"

Dinobot drew in a deep intake, ready to unleash her wrath on the spy. But before she could find the words to begin her tirade, there was an unintelligible cry of alarm from Cheetor in the background followed by the garbled, but recognizable drawl of a particular quick-shooting Predacon. A blast of laser fire sounded. There was a sizzling crunch - like electrical lines overloading and exploding inside their housing box - that seemed to come directly beside the receiver before the comm-link line abruptly cut out. Harsh, deafening static roared out of the speaker.

For a moment Dinobot just stared at the computer consol, too stunned to even know how to react. Behind her she heard someone gasp. In her daze she realized it was probably Airazor. For several minutes, no one spoke or moved.

Optimus was the first one to finally rattle himself out of their shocked trance. "Rhinox, get on the long-range scanners and see if you can't find Rattrap and Cheetor's energy signatures for their exact location." Despite his outward calm, his voice was tinged with unmistakable dread. "We may need to send out an immediate rescue team."

The engineer leapt to do so. For several minutes Rhinox fiddled with the controls of the scanners, his movements stiff and harried. "I can't pick up their energy signatures!" he finally shouted in defeat and leaned back in his chair. "There's a huge storm front moving in from the southeast that's blocking all transmissions in that area. The scanners can't pick up their signatures anymore because of electrical interference from the storm. It's that or…" Rhinox trained off into ominous silence, his facial plates grave. He didn't have to say what they were all already thinking.

Silence filled the bridge. No one seemed able to speak. An oppressive weight seemed to fill the air. Still seated at the computer consol, Dinobot continued to stare at the static-filled comm-line as though expecting Rattrap's voice to crackle back to life at any moment.

As the seconds ticked by and the other side of the line remained dead, Dinobot became aware of the growing knot of panic in the pit of her coolant tank. She felt her spark seize with mounting dread. Beneath her sparkchamber the sparkling squirmed with agitation.

Everything suddenly came crashing down on her at once.

The vermin… was gone. Probably dead. Just like that. He'd disappeared as abruptly as a candle blown out by the wind, leaving nothing but staticky silence in his wake. She was alone. Irrevocably, frighteningly _alone_ except for his tiny progeny growing inside her chest. How was she to go on if he was dead? He was the only reason she'd ever agreed to carry this sparkling, and he'd left her with nothing but several parting words of frustration and anger. She couldn't do this. Not if he wasn't there. She'd been depending on him to be the better creator. There was no way she could raise a sparkling by herself. She wasn't meant to be a mother. She was meant to die on a battlefield. She couldn't do this. He couldn't be gone! He couldn't leave her! Not like this!

Suddenly seized with uncontrolled panic, Dinobot lunged at the comm-link's control panel and opened the line to all Maximal wavelengths. "Vermin! Vermin, answer me! Pick up!" she yelled into the microphone.

Unbroken static answered her.

"Don't you dare ignore me, rodent! Pick up!" she cried, frantically hailing all frequencies for response. "Vermin! Vermin? _Rattrap_, answer me!"

"Dinobot, calm down," Airazor said, suddenly by her side. The warrioress felt the flier's hands on her shoulders, gently trying to pull her back from the consol. She pointedly ignored her.

"Vermin, respond!"

"Dinobot, it's no good," Airazor said, pulling on her harder. "At best, Rattrap's comm-link's disabled because of the storm. At worst he's injured. There's no way you're going to get him on the line like this."

"Shut up!" Dinobot snarled, rearing away out of Airazor's touch and to her feet. "You know nothing!" As if in a daze, she swung around towards Rhinox. "Try using the scanners again. You have to find him!"

Rhinox shook his head. "I already tried. The scanners can't find his or Cheetor's energy signatures because of that storm they ran into."

Dinobot frantically swept her optics around the bridge as if looking for any other ideas to help her. The panic inside her steadily mounted with each passing second. "Try again! You have to at least try!"

"It's no good," Optimus said, stepping in. "I know this is troubling, Dinobot. Probably more for you than anyone else, but right now we have to wait until the storm passes for us to try using the scanners again. Until then we're just going to have to hold tight and hope for the best. I wouldn't be too worried, though. Rattrap's resourceful." Despite his attempt at levity, the Maximal leader's body language told a completely different story for how he expected this to ultimately play out. The agonized sadness in his optics said it all.

"Don't tell me what I have to do when it was _you_ that sent the rodent on this mission in the first place even after you expressly said you wouldn't!" the warrioress snapped. All the rage and hurt that'd been boiling inside her since being confined to base seemed to come spewing out of her all at once. "For all we know he and Cheetor are _dead,_ and it'll be all because of _you_ I have to raise this sparkling by myself! I can't do this without the vermin! I can't!"

Dinobot was aware of how shrill her voice had become and how hysterical she must seem to her fellow crewmates. But she didn't care. Her lover, the sire of her sparkling, was gone - most likely dead! - leaving her to an uncertain and lonely future. Anger, grief and fear warred with each other for dominance inside her spark and she let all of them come spilling out of her as they may. Usually she would frown upon anyone who made such a disgraceful show of emotional weakness. But in this once instance she understood the necessity for it - the overwhelming _need_ to get these noxious feelings out of her before they consumed her alive from the inside out. Warrior decorum had no place in situations like this.

"Dinobot, you have to calm down," Optimus said, urgent and low. He held his hands up to her in front of his chest like one trying to soothe a spooked animal. "Getting upset isn't going to help anyone. Nor is it healthy for your sparkling. We don't even know if Rattrap and Cheetor are actually injured yet."

"_Don't tell me what I should do!_" she shrieked, no longer caring what anyone thought of her. "It's your fault the vermin went out there, so it's your responsibility to get him back! Send a team to find them! Get someone to bring him back! Just do something before- AH!"

Dinobot's knees buckled under her and almost sent her stumbling to the ground as an unexpected wave of pain blossomed from deep inside her out across her chest. Doubling over against the stab of pain, she clutched her rounded chassis, gritting her teeth to keep from crying out.

Gasps and startled cries went up around the bridge, and the warrioress suddenly found herself surrounded by several others. Several different sets of hands reached out to steady her as a second stab of pain sliced across her sparkchamber and jackknifed her at the waist. Her knees shook underneath her. If it weren't for the numerous hands holding her up she was sure she would have crumpled to the ground by now. Only half-aware of what was happening around her Dinobot only recognized Rhinox when he shoved his way to her side and pressed his hand down against her chest.

"What is it? What's wrong with her?" Optimus demanded. He stood close beside her, holding her up by her one arm. Silverbolt stood across from him, steadying her other side.

Rhinox removed his hand and leaned back. "She's going into labor. The shock must have triggered the process."

"But it's too early," Tigatron said somewhere off to the side.

"Tell that to it!" Dinobot hissed through gritted teeth over the tearing pain in her chest.

Rhinox stepped closer again. "We have to get her to med-bay. Airazor, I want you to assist me."

"No problem," the flier nodded. Motioning Silverbolt away, she sidled up beside Dinobot and took her by the arm. "Come on. Let's get you somewhere a little more comfortable." Slowly, gently, she urged Dinobot towards the door. Too distracted by pain, emotional numbness and shock, the warrioress blindly let herself be guided forward.

"Blackarachnia," Rhinox called over his shoulder, "I want you to come along too."

"What? Why?" the she-spider demanded, leaping to her pedes.

"Because I want another femme nearby in case something happens that requires more intimate assistance that I won't be suited to give."

Blackarachnia vehemently shook her head. "Ugh uh. No way. I don't want anything to do with th-"

"Please," Optimus interrupted. He stared down at her pleadingly, his optics bright with concern and ill-concealed worry. "Rhinox needs your help and it wouldn't be proper for any of us other mechs to help. You're the only other one that can assist."

Blackarachnia still looked ready to argue, but before she could Silverbolt took the opportunity to interject. "Please, Blackarachnia. Dinobot needs you and you're the only other one that can help see her through this." Leaning closer and dropping his voice to a conspiratorial whisper so that the warrioress couldn't overhear him, he solemnly added, "Rattrap might be dead. Dinobot has no one to welcome her sparkling online with. She will need someone beside her not only through the birth, but also through her grief of losing a lover. Please, will you do it? For me if for no one else?"

Blackarachnia grit her teeth, as though still prepared to argue. But then staring at Silverbolt for a long moment of silence, she finally threw her pinchers up in the air and groaned with defeat. "Alright! Fine! I'll do it. But don't ask me for any more favors for a long, _long_ time. Got it?"

Silverbolt beamed at her lovingly. "Thank you. I will remember this noble sacrifice you have made for your fellow femme."

"I neither want nor need an audience for this," Dinobot snarled from the other side of the room. "I don't want any other people in the room with me. Let her stay."

"Unfortunately, you're being outvoted in this," Rhinox said, coming up beside her. "Come on. Let's go." Together he and Airazor began to usher her off the bridge. If it wasn't for the pain splitting her in two Dinobot might have argued more vociferously and planted her feet against the ground in protest. But it was amazing how easily this newly discovered spark-deep pain could make her forget about appearances and allow them to lead her from the room the same way they would a feeble old model near the end of her function. Somewhere behind them Blackarachnia sullenly followed.

Within minutes they reached med-bay. Dinobot gratefully lowered herself onto the edge of one of the many empty berths and kneaded her knuckles against her swollen chest. At some point during their trek there the pain across her sparkchamber had begun to lessen and fade away. A residual ache was all that remained now. She felt too numb with grief and shock to focus on anything other than the dull ache in her chest. Nor did she feel she had the emotional strength right now to try and figure out if the lingering pain was from the rat's progeny moving inside her or from the grief of her lover's passing.

"How are you feeling?" a gentle voice said beside her.

Dinobot shook herself out of her wandering thoughts, and looked up to find Airazor standing close beside her, her hand resting on the warrioress's shoulder guard. Blackarachnia stood several paces away near the wall with both arms crossed in front of her chest. The black widow seemed uncertain as to what she was suppose to be doing, and uncomfortably waited to be instructed to do something.

It took Dinobot a moment to find her voice. "I'm fine," she forced herself to say, her voice rough with unchecked emotions. Her hand continued to rub the distended swell of her sparkchamber. "The pain has receded and is almost completely gone now."

Airazor looked up towards Rhinox who'd begun rummaging through a small supply cabinet on the far side of the room. "Could it have been a false alarm?" she asked. "Maybe the pain was just brought on from shock. The sparkling might not be ready to come after all."

Dinobot followed Airazor's gaze towards the pseudo-medic. Through her numbed daze she felt a tiny flicker of hope sputter to life inside her. _Yes, a false labor_, she thought._ Please let it have been that. I can't do this now. _Especially_ not now. I'd give almost anything not to have to suffer this. If I could just have a little more time I could prepare myself more. If I could just delay this a few more days I'd have more time to figure out what to do…_

Unfortunately, her silent prayers seemed to go unheard.

"I doubt it," Rhinox said, turning from the cabinet and moving back towards the group of femmes with an armload of different supplies. Dumping the equipment on the berth beside Dinobot's, he leaned downed over her and pressed a strange metallic device several inches long against the raptor's chest. Dinobot felt a gentle pulse of energy flow through her from the device. On its tiny LCD screen, several different symbols and lights blinked. Rhinox frowned.

A small tendril of dread rose up inside Dinobot to encircle her sparkchamber and squeeze. "What is it? What's wrong?" she demanded. She hated the note of fear she'd been unable to mask in her voice, but the look on the engineer's face did nothing to calm her steadily mounting panic. What more bad things could possibly happen to her this day?

"Is something wrong with the sparkling?" Airazor worriedly asked.

Rhinox set the device aside and turned to meet their gaze. "No. Nothing's wrong, per se. Unfortunately, I was just proved right that what you felt before wasn't a false labor but the real thing. That was just a precursor for what's to come. Your delivery process's been activated. The sparkling _is_ coming. The pain's going to come back again, stronger next time. And it'll keep getting stronger and more frequent the closer you get to delivery."

Dinobot's internal components clenched. Her fuel tank churned with nausea. No. She couldn't do this. Not here. Not now. Not without the vermin. "Isn't there anything you can do to stop it?" she asked, desperate and pleading.

But Rhinox just shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. There's no way to stop the process once it's started. This is going to happen, whether you're ready for it or not." Holding Dinobot's gaze steadily with his own he added in a hushed tone, "I really am sorry, Dinobot. I know you don't want to go through this, especially alone, but you're going to have to be strong and do this. If we're lucky it'll all be over by this time tomorrow."

Before this moment, Dinobot had been sure she could experience no more loss or spark-ache that day after everything that had already happened. Yet, against all odds and expectations, she felt her spark spasm with a renewed wave of grief and the already shattered remains of her world splinter into a handful of pieces as fine as ground diamond dust.

To be continued

Author's Note:

Alright, guys. This is the last time I'm going to beg for feedback. I've kept my mouth shut for the last several chapters, but I've reached my proverbial limit. What is so hard about leaving a freaking feedback message? If you're still reading this then _please_ tell me what you think! It's the only way I know people are still reading! Questions, comments, personal thoughts, even constructive criticism are all welcome, but you need to actually _tell_ me! I don't read minds! I have no other way of knowing what you think of this story or how you feel it could be improved if you don't _tell me_. Feedback is my number one motivator, and recently I've begun to doubt if this is worth continuing.


	12. Premonitions

Thanks for all the feedback last chapter. I really appreciated it. So as a thank you, here's the next chapter.

**Chapter Twelve: Premonitions**

Rattrap ran through the darkened halls of the Axalon. The hurried staccato of his footsteps echoed against the walls, down the corridors and into the unseen distance. Mech-fluid pounded in his audios, drowning out almost all other sound. His carburetor churned as he forced himself faster. His intakes strained to draw in air and cool his overworked engine, but he ignored the burning pain of his ventilation lines.

He had to hurry. There wasn't any time to waste. He might already be too late.

Skidding around the corner into another corridor that led to the crew's personal quarters, Rattrap put on an extra burst of speed. He had to hurry. He had to find her. He came to the door of his own quarters and punched in the key-code. The lock chirped green and the door slid aside, but no one was inside. Swallowing back his panic, Rattrap spun away and frantically ran for the set of rooms three doors down on the right. His fingers fumbled with the keypad as he tried to remember the five-digit code. The door finally chirped its approval and slid to the side to reveal the room's beyond.

Rattrap's spark seized at what he saw. The room was bathed in semi-darkness. The overhead lights were damaged. Half of them were completely dead, while the other half flickered on and off like a wounded animals struggling for their last few moments of life. On the far side of the room a figure sat on the floor, slumped upright in the corner. In the dim, strobing light the spy noticed a shimmering black pool of half-dried mech-fluid, energon and numerous other body fluids around the motionless form.

Rattrap's spark spasmed with dread as he threw himself inside the room and dropped to his knees beside the fluid-covered figure.

"Choppa'face! Choppa'face, answer me!" he cried, reaching out to frantically shake his lover's shoulders.

The warrioress's optics slowly brightened to half capacity as if she'd just dragged herself out of some extremely deep recharge. Dinobot groggily stared at him through flickering optics as though trying to place his face. She did not try to lift her head up from against the wall behind her. Rattrap feared it was because she didn't have the strength. "…rodent," she finally whispered in recognition. Her voice was raspy and weak, barely even audible. Rattrap's panic swelled.

"Wha' da heck happened ta ya?" the spy cried, staring at his fluid-drenched lover in horror. "Where're ya hurt?" The warrioress looked exactly like she did after her first fight with Talon, but unlike that time Rattrap could see no visible slash marks or wounds anywhere on her. Only fluid and the clotted remnants of visceral carnage.

Slowly, with obvious pain, Dinobot peeled her one hand away from overtop her chest. A gaping hole lay underneath in the very center of Dinobot's chest. Rattrap had to physically force down a wave of revulsion to keep from becoming sick. It looked like someone had tried to carve out her sparkchamber with a knife. The Maximal spy could actually see the faint blue glow of Dinobot's life force. Her spark pulsed weakly inside her sparkchamber like a candle sputtering in the wind. It was then that Rattrap noticed a gore-stained knife sitting on the floor next to Dinobot's leg. It's serrated eight-inch blade glistened wetly in the flickering light overhead. He recognized the design. It was one of Dinobot's favorite hunting knife.

Staring at his lover in shock and no small amount of horror, it was only then Rattrap noticed the tiny, fluid-covered bundle in Dinobot's lap. It's gory form was almost unidentifiable in the dim light. But as Rattrap stared, he was able to distinguish the outline of a miniature arm and shoulder and the rounded curve of a tiny cranial unit. A perfectly formed little fist rested against Dinobot's stomach, as though it'd been reaching out for her before it'd abruptly gone still. It didn't move or make any noise, and limply twisted in Dinobot's lap with her movements as she struggled to push herself into a more upright position against the wall.

Rattrap couldn't think, couldn't even move. All he could do was stare at his lover and the motionless bundle of limbs she'd carved out of her own chest.

"You said you didn't want it anymore," Dinobot rasped, barely even conscious. Her intakes gurgled in her throat. "I didn't know what else to do…"

"Why?" the spy demanded, shell-shocked and desperate to understand how things had come to this. "Ya dumb lizard, why'dja do it? Ya should know by now I never mean anything I say."

Dinobot stared at him, her optics dull and almost lifeless. "Forgive me," she whispered. Her voice was distant and sleepy, like one slowly fading into recharge. "I did not think I had any other choice…"

Swallowing back his sorrow and regret, struggling to keep himself together despite the agonized wail of despair that was slowly building in the back of his throat, Rattrap forced himself to focus on the warrioress. "Don't worry 'bout dat right now," he ordered in a forcefully strong voice as he reached out to press his hands down over the gaping hole in her chest. "Right now we hafta get'chu stable. Yer bleedin' too much." Even as he pressed his hands down against her, a hot wave of fluid gushed up over the sides of Rattrap's hands and coated them a dark shade of royal purple.

Dinobot let her head sag back against the wall, her optics flickering. "Forgive me…" she whispered. "I did not wish for it to come to this…"

"Shut up and lay still!" Rattrap yelled, panic raising his voice. Fluid continued to seep over the sides of his hands despite his best attempts to stop it. He could feel Dinobot's internal parts begin to sputter and stall inside her. The warrioress slouched farther back against the wall. The sparkling's head dangled over the side of her thigh. Rattrap frantically looked over his shoulder back towards the door. "Help!" he screamed. "Somebody! I need some help in here!"

But he heard no sound of approaching footsteps or other any other signs of aide.

"Come on, Choppa'face, hang in der," he pleaded, turning back to Dinobot. He desperately pressed down harder, trying to staunch the flow of vital liquids. "Don't give up on me. Ya gotta keep fightin.'"

Dinobot weakly turned her head towards Rattrap, her optics unfocused and distant. "I'm done fighting…" she murmured, her voice no louder than a whisper. Her lips barely twitched trying to form the words. "I have had my turn on the great stage of life and must take my exit… Forgive me… This was not how I wanted us to part ways…"

"Be quiet, ya stupid saurian," Rattrap choked, his voice breaking deep inside his throat. He couldn't lose Dinobot. Not here. Not like this. He had too many things he still needed to tell her - to apologize for. "Ya gotta stay with me!" He was openly begging now, but he didn't care. He had to make her listen. "Please! I'm sorry fer wha' I said before! Just don't leave me!"

But Dinobot no longer seemed aware of what he was saying. Her optics had dimmed even more. She only stared in his general direction as if she were no longer able to properly focus on him. "It's cold…" she murmured, almost to herself. Her voice was like air seeping out of a deflating balloon - hushed and tragically peaceful.

"Stay with me!" Rattrap cried. Hot fluid covered his hands, but no matter how hard he pressed down against his lover's wound it seemed to do nothing to stop anymore of it from coming. "_Please!_"

Dinobot opened her mouth as if to say something else. But before she could, she stopped, her mouth drifting close again. The light slowly dimmed from her optics. Her body slumped heavily back against the wall. Her body went slack. The motionless sparkling she'd been cradling against her sagged as her hand fell away from it to the floor and lay limply draped across her legs like some kind of gore-covered lapdog.

Rattrap's hands fell back to his sides as if they each weighed a thousand pounds, his efforts now completely useless to the silent warrioress. Mech-fluid dripped from the ends of his fingers. It coated his hands in gloves of hot, sticky wetness. For a moment he couldn't make himself compute the scene - the horrible, _horrible_ scene! - he'd just witnessed. He couldn't believe it. There was no way what'd just seen could be real. There was no way Dinobot could be gone!

But no matter how long he stared at his lover and their premature sparkling the scene did not change.

Rattrap suddenly felt a tight, bubbling sensation in the hollow of his chest. It broiled and writhed there like some evil, living thing trying to eat him alive from the inside out. He struggled to fight it, to somehow wrestle it back down where it could fester and rot silently inside him, but before he could stop it it came bursting out of his mouth in an unholy shriek of anger, sorrow, guilt, despair and regret that seemed to emanate from the very core of his spark. Anyone listening would have sworn it was the anguished cry of some tortured spark suffering inside the deepest circle of the Pit.

The sound continued to spew from Rattrap, unending and breathless. The spy felt he had no power to stop it. It just kept coming and coming. It was like something deep inside him had broke and removed the dam to this tidal wave of pain-filled emotions.

He couldn't believe it. He couldn't stand it. He felt like he was being torn apart inside. He'd lost his lover. He'd lost his child. He'd lost everything. How was he suppose to go on? He couldn't. He couldn't! He-

"Rattrap!"

Rattrap came awake with a gasp, bolting upright. His hands blindly shot up as though trying to ward off some unknown danger, his arms flailing. The dark outline of a body loomed in front of him.

"Whoa, whoa!" a voice cried. Hands reached out to grab him by the shoulders and steady him. "It's alright, Rattrap. Calm down. It's me - Cheetor!"

The spy froze, the younger Maximal's voice breaking through his fog of panic. He sat gasping for air, disoriented and confused. For a moment he didn't know where he was. Everything felt upside down and backwards. Cheetor gripped him tightly by the shoulders, his hands like physical anchors in his turbulent storm of confusion and unfocused fear. They were living proof that the things he saw and felt weren't the product of some lucid dream, but in fact reality. Nevertheless, a part of him still shuddered with memories of the frightening scene he'd just imagined. Intensely vivid images of Dinobot and their sparkling continued to haunt his processor like restless ghosts that refused to remain dead and buried in their graves. There'd been so much fluid. So much gore. He imagined he could still feel it covering his hands in a sticky film of damnation and guilt. He still remembered with startling clarity the way Dinobot had sagged underneath his hands as she'd faded offline, and the inexplicably tragic way their child's body had twisted in her lap as her hold on it fell away.

"Rattrap? Hey, you okay?" Cheetor's voice startled him out of his thoughts. His voice was full of worry. "It sounded like you were having one heck of a dream there."

"Where'm I?" the spy murmured, trying to shake himself into some semblance of control. "Wha' happened?" His vocal cables were unnaturally tight and tinged with static. He forcefully pushed lingering images of his dream from his mind. It hadn't been real, he told himself. It was just a dream. Everything was alright. Dinobot was still alive. Their sparkling was safe. He had to pull himself together. He didn't want Cheetor to realize just how shaken he really was. His processor still swum slightly with disorientation. As he sat there trying to get his bearings, Rattrap became aware of a throbbing pain in his right shoulder. It seemed to radiate down his side and across his back like tendrils of molten lava. He winced sharply and grit his teeth to keep from crying out when he tried to sit up straighter.

"Whoa, take it easy there, RT," Cheetor said, steadying the spy by his shoulders until the pain subsided. "You're not in the best shape right now."

"Wha' happened?" Rattrap demanded through gritted teeth. It felt like his entire back had been doused with acid by the way his sensor-net was screaming.

Somewhere nearby a crack of thunder sounded, as though the very fabric of the universe was being torn apart around them. It was only then that Rattrap noticed that he and Cheetor were no longer in the rain, but rather in some dark, cold, musty place. The ground beneath him was uncomfortably hard and damp. Pebbles and little shards of rock dug into his exo-armor and poked him between the joints of his plates. A low, shelf-like ceiling hung overhead. Rattrap estimated it was no higher above the ground than he was tall. If Cheetor stood he'd have to stoop at the waist to keep from hitting his helm. A rocky opening stood half a dozen feet to Rattrap's right, its outline nothing more than a slightly lighter patch of blue-black against the surrounding maw of darkness around them. Rattrap realized then that he and his younger companion had taken shelter in a cave. Well, 'cave' was probably too generous of a word to describe the scooped out hollow of rocks Cheetor had found. 'Rocky overhang' was probably more accurate a term. The recess was shallow and narrow - no more than two meters deep and just as many wide. Huddled together against the back wall of the alcove, Rattrap and Cheetor barely had enough room to sit across from each other and stretch out their legs. But at least it was (relatively) dry, and from what Rattrap could tell impenetrable to the gusting wind unleashing it fury outside. Rain cascaded across the entrance of their shelter as if a waterfall had redirected its flow across it. Somewhere overhead another roll of thunder crashed.

Across from him, Cheetor sat back on his haunches as if to somehow make himself comfortable. Rattrap could barely make out his outline in the darkness except for the muted glow of his optics. Even kneeling the younger Maximal had to stoop slightly to keep his head from hitting the rocky ceiling. "Do you remember Quickstrike sneaking up on us?" he asked.

Rattrap carefully leaned back against the wall and nodded with a wince. How could he forget?

"Well, after he shot you, he and I got into a minor firefight. It wasn't that hard to send him running for the hills again, but by the time I drove him off you were already offline. I tried hailing base for help, but the storm's interfering with our comm-link lines. All I get is static. I didn't know what else to do so I tried to find someplace for us to hunker down. I managed to find this place a few hills away from where the Preds were building that tower."

"Not bad, kid," Rattrap nodded, slightly impressed by the younger Maximal's initiative. "Ya just might make a decent crewmember yet."

Cheetor sheepishly ducked his head, not used to being praised. Usually it because of some mistake he'd made or his inexperience that he got yelled at. For once Rattrap was truly grateful that that hadn't been the case and they could diverge from the usual outcome of one of Cheetor's attempts to be useful. Shifting uncomfortably over the uneven ground, Rattrap gingerly settled back against the wall. His entire back burned. "So how bad's da damage?" he asked with a nod over his right shoulder. "Feels like half my back plates ov' been peeled away."

Despite the darkness, Rattrap saw Cheetor wince with sympathy. "Your probably not that far off target. Quickstrike clipped you pretty good. But it looks mostly superficial from what I could tell. You lost some fluid, but your self-repair systems kicked in before it got really bad. I did what I could to patch it up after I got you here. You should be okay, but transforming's probably going to hurt."

Rattrap shrugged. "When da energon surges get bad enough I'll try transformin', but I know right now it's gonna hurt. Just sittin' still feels like I'm on some sorta torture rack."

"Is there anything I can do?" Cheetor asked.

"Na," Rattrap said, shaking his head. "Save yer sympathy fer someone else. I probably deserved ta get slagged in da back since I wasn't watchin' wha' was happenin'. I must be losin' my touch if some bunglin' Pred can sneak up behind me like dat." Cheetor seemed unconvinced, but didn't press the point. Taking a steadying intake against the burning pain running like wildfire through his back's neural net, Rattrap shifted in place again. He couldn't seem to find a comfortable position no matter how hard he tried. "Have ya tried callin' base again?"

Cheetor nodded. "Yeah, but I can't get through. The lightning's making too much static to get any kind of clear signal."

Rattrap reached to the side of his helm and tapped on his own comm-link line. A deafening roar of static filled his audios. He immediately cut the line off again. "Well isn't dat just prime," he murmured in mockery of their leader's favorite phrase.

Sinking back against the wall, Rattrap glanced towards the opening of their shelter. Rain pelted the ground, making a soupy mess of the area immediately outside the overhang. With communications down, the storm steadily worsening, and himself injured, he and Cheetor had no choice but to sit there and wait it out. The spy only hoped things were going better back on ship than they were for them out here. At least Dinobot was safe. Once he got back the first thing he was going to do was hunt her down and apologize. The last thing he wanted was for the terrible things in his dream to somehow come true.

Outside the cave, an ominous roll of thunder sounded somewhere on the horizon.

* * *

_Three Hours into Labor_

Dinobot bit back a roar of pain as she bucked forward at the waist and clutched at her chest with one hand. Airazor was by her side, steadying her by the elbow as they waited for the pain to pass. Across the room, seated on the edge of one of the many empty berths with one leg thrown over the other knee, Blackarachnia watched the two with bored detachment.

It'd been like this for awhile now. For the last several hours Dinobot had been pacing up and down med-bay to help lessen her labor pains. As Rhinox had informed them, her internal parts had begun the complicated task of shifting to either side of her chest cavity to make a path for the sparkling to pass through from its place beneath her sparkchamber. It was an extremely slow and painful process, yet because of their diminished medical supplies Rhinox didn't have enough anesthetics to give Dinobot anything until she was just about to deliver.

Just as Blackarachnia expected, the warrioress had spat at the idea and promptly informed all of them that she didn't need any pain medication, and that for her to use any would be the sign of weakness. If millennia of femmes before her could give birth without painkillers or sedatives then so could she.

Blackarachnia snorted quietly to herself as Dinobot grit her dentals and clutched her chest on the other side of the room. That was exactly what she'd expected some feminist radical like Dinobot to say in the early stages of sparkbearing. In Blackarachnia's opinion, the less pain involved, the better. Medics developed drugs for a reason. Dinobot making such a display out of forgoing them was just a self-righteous show of pride.

_Stupid saurian._

Yet despite the two femme's differing views, Blackarachnia had to grudgingly admit that she was mildly impressed with the warrioress thus far. Despite her steadily worsening pain, the raptor had yet to actually scream or cry out in discomfort. She took each new realignment of her internal parts stolidly and without any open display of suffering. The worst Blackarachnia had seen her react was to clutch her chest and pause in her trek like she was doing right now.

Despite Dinobot's composure, Blackarachnia was still nervous about the entire process and her supposed role in it. They'd been there for several hours now and she was still trying to figure out what they were expecting her to do. Airazor was coaching (although Blackarachnia was willing to bet that at some point she was going to end up getting thrown through a wall), while Rhinox was overseeing all the medical aspects of the process. But Blackarachnia… she was without direction. She had no idea what she was suppose to do or what role she was suppose to be filling. If anything, she felt in the way or like a lecherous voyeur observing an intimate moment she had no business being in the room to see. This wasn't right. She shouldn't be there. Yet both Rhinox and Airazor kept insisting they needed her with them. Why? To see the strong and capable warrioress she'd slowly come to respect yield more and more to steadily worsening bouts of pain? To watch her pace up and down med-bay until another realignment hit her and made her clutch her chest in silent agony? What good did her being there serve? It wasn't right. She didn't belong there.

If anything, her presence only made the black widow's already sour views on sparkbearing even more so. How could Maximals ever think this was a beautiful thing? From what little she'd seen of it so far it was a frightening, dark and painful process. Silverbolt was an ignorant fool to think it was anything other than slow, horrific torture. Dinobot too for actually agreeing to go through with this. Blackarachnia didn't like it. Not one bit. Sparkbearing was little more than nature's way for a femme's body to tear itself apart from the inside out. It wasn't right. And Rhinox had said this was suppose to only get worse the closer she got to delivery. How was that even possible?

Across the room, Dinobot's realignment passed, allowing the raptor to shakily resume her pacing as though nothing was wrong except an excess of pent-up energy.

"Are you okay? Do you want to sit down for awhile?" Airazor asked, keeping stride beside her as though worried Dinobot might suddenly collapse at any moment.

"No," the warrioress spat and continued her circuit up and down the room undaunted. She absentmindedly kneaded her knuckles into the distended swell of her chest. "I do not wish to sit down. Nor do I wish to 'take it easy' or rest. Just leave me be. I do not need yours or anyone else's help."

Airazor didn't seem to take the rebuke personally and quietly retreated several feet to stand beside Rhinox on the other side of the room where he was tinkering with the calibrations of some small machine Blackarachnia had no clue as to what its purpose was. Although Dinobot seemed fine now, the black widow knew it was only a matter of time before the pain came back again and forced the warrioress's stride to falter and her hand to once more claw at her chest as her internal parts were viciously wrenched about and reconfigured inside her.

The entire situation was disturbing and wrong. She shouldn't be there. There wasn't anything useful she could possibly do. Yet, despite all Blackarachnia's misgiving she remained where she was. She couldn't explain why exactly. Maybe it was because of her promise to Silverbolt, or maybe it was because of some small seed of curiosity inside her. Or maybe it was because Dinobot really didn't have anyone else to help see her through this except an engineer/medic, an overly helpful goody-twoshoes, and herself. It wasn't much of a consolation considering the sorry support group they made, but given the fact that the no good sire of her sparkling was for all intents and purposes removed from the equation, Blackarachnia did not feel comfortable leaving Dinobot to face her fate alone. She'd come to respect the warrioress too much to abandon her like that in good conscience (one of the unforeseen side effects, it seemed, of staying in Maximal company for too long.) Whether she liked it or not, she was committed to see this through even if all she could do was helplessly watch.

Blackarachnia just hoped this sparkling came sooner rather than later. She'd already begun to see signs of tiring on Dinobot's face with each new set of internal shifts. Stressed and already drained from her breakdown earlier in the control room, Blackarachnia wasn't sure if Dinobot could withstand a drawn-out birth. She knew the warrioress was no weakling but even the mightiest soldier could be struck down in battle - and many times because of the most unexpected circumstances.

They'd already lost at least one bot that day. Blackarachnia just hoped that before this whole thing was over that that total didn't rise to two…

* * *

Optimus stood on the Axalon's command deck staring at a 3D digital display of the approaching storm front. From what their sensors could detect, the storm was massive. Its entire mass appeared to spread out over several hundred square miles of land. Already the outer edge of it was moving in over the Maximals' territory. Every so often Optimus could hear the muffled _pling_ of raindrops on the ship's outer hull. Perimeter sensors had already begun to pick up a rapid decrease of air pressure and an increase of terrestrial wind speeds topping over thirty-three miles per hour.

The Maximal commander turned away from the visual display, unable to look at it anymore. From what he could tell from the readings, the storm could very possibly last several days unless it suddenly changed course or dissipated - neither of which it showed any signs of doing. Chances of them being able to try signaling their missing comrades or sending out a scout team to find them anytime soon seemed slim to none.

Optimus hung his head, his spark heavy with guilt. Although he'd had no way of knowing Cheetor and Rattrap would encounter Predacon resistance in that distance sector of wilderness or that they'd run into a massive unexpected thunderstorm, he nonetheless felt the situation his crew found themselves in entirely his fault. Rattrap and Cheetor were missing, both of them feared dead, Dinobot was in premature labor and the rest of them were left helpless to do anything about either situation, and all because of him.

_I shouldn't have sent Rattrap out there,_ Optimus berated himself. _I promised him I wouldn't send him on any distant missions until Dinobot delivered, and I went ahead and did it anyways. I made a promise and broke it. Some great leader I turned out to be._

If Rattrap was dead, he'd never be able to make it up to Dinobot. She would never forgive him for indirectly killing her lover. Not to mention the unfortunate series of events he'd put into motions that had sent Dinobot into preterm labor. There was a very high possibility that not only would the sparkling she carried come online too early for it to survive on its own, but that the ex-Predacon warrioress herself would succumb to the dangers of sparkbearing and die on this primitive, backwater planet. He'd have no excuse to defend himself it that happened. It would be all three of their deaths on his head if that happened - an entire family sentenced to the Well of Allsparks because of him and his poor leadership skills. Optimus didn't know if he could handle that kind of guilt. His coolant tank churned just at the thought. His hands shook with suppressed dread. He tried to pull himself together and maintain the composure of a strong commander, but he felt as though he'd lost the right to try and even fake such a façade. If the worst happened, no one would ever trust him to lead again. Optimus doubted he'd trust _himself_ to lead anymore if they ended up losing not only Rattrap but Dinobot and their sparkling as well. And where would that leave the rest of the Maximals then if that happened? They'd be overrun by Megatron within the week. And all because of him…

"Optimus?" Tigatron's voice startled the Maximal leader out of his thoughts.

The transmetal gorilla slowly turned to face the scout who sat on the other side of the bridge at the computer terminal Dinobot had vacated almost five hours ago. Silverbolt sat at the terminal directly to his right, monitoring the atmospheric changes outside. There was still the unspoken hope that Cheetor or Rattrap would somehow radio in to base despite the worsening storm.

Tigatron held Optimus' gaze with his own as though trying to stare into his very spark. "This isn't your fault," he said. "I've known you long enough now to know what you're probably thinking, and that line of code you're going down isn't helpful to anyone, least of all yourself. We need you as our commander. Forgiveness can be sought later after the proverbial storm has passed - which it will. But for right now we all need you to stay strong and not let your doubts cloud your judgment."

Optimus blinked, startled that his feelings had been so obvious that another had been able to pick up on them so easily. But then again, Tigatron had always struck him as an extremely observant bot.

"Thank you, Tigatron," he murmured. "I will take that advice to spark."

The scout nodded his approval and slowly turned back around towards the bank of monitors.

Optimus, however, frowned sadly. As much as he'd like to listen to Tigatron, creeping tendril of guilt still squeezed his spark in a vice-like hold. No matter how hard he tried to remain in control of the present, it would not change the past or lessen his culpability for his crewmembers' current suffering and pain.

The Maximal commander might have continued on in this vein of despondent thought if a small chip hadn't sounded from the communications relay of Silverbolt's station at that very moment. All three mechs looked up and stared at it in surprise as a static-filled voice drifted over the line as if from a million miles away and filled the bridge with a barrage of garbled noise.

"_Cheet-__**schzzzzz**__- to base. -__**schzzzz**__- Come i-__**schzzzzzz**_."

For a moment Optimus could only stare at the crackling comm-link, unable to believe this fortuitous change of events.

"Rattr-_**schzzzz**_- nd I ar-_**schzzzz**_- stuck in -_**schzzz**_- cave. Th -_**schzzzzz**_- orm's got us pinned down. We're both -_**schzzzz**_- ay, but -_**schzzz**_- -an't leave. Plea-_**schzzzzz**_- spond. Over."

Almost dizzy with relief, Optimus sent a silent prayer of thanks to Primus.

* * *

Rattrap watched with annoyance as Cheetor fiddled with the settings of his comm-link for probably the thousandth time in the last two hours. The younger Maximal crouched near the very mouth of the cave as if being closer to the entrance would somehow get him better reception. Not that there was much hope of that, Rattrap thought with a snort. Even though several hours had passed since he'd woken up in their rocky shelter the storm outside hadn't abated at all. In fact, the storm seemed to have grown even _worse_ in intensity. Rain fell from the broiling black clouds in driving sheets. Wind whipped the air. Lightening illuminated the sky as if giant searchlights were being randomly flicked on and off above the clouds while booming peals of thunder literally shook the ground beneath them.

"Cheetor to base. Cheetor to base," the scout cried into his comm-link over a particularly loud crash of thunder. His beast-mode tail lashed the air behind him with mounting frustration. "Come in. Over."

A deafening roar of static was his only response.

"Give it up, kid," Rattrap tiredly called from his place at the very back of the cave. "Yer not gonna get anyone on da line wit' dis storm da way it is. Just sit down an' take it easy." As though taking his own advice, the spy lay huddled at the far back of the cave against the wall, his beast-mode's legs and tail tucked tightly underneath him. His wheel rims were folded flat down against his sides. He let Cheetor think he was laying that way because of the rapidly dropping temperature outside. Even as he spoke, an icy draft whipped through the shallow hollow of their refuge as a particularly strong gust of wind howled across the entrance. But the growing chill was not what was making Rattrap huddle so tightly down against himself.

It was pain.

The levels of unstable energon in the area had finally become too much for his robot form to stand several hours ago, forcing him to convert to beast-mode. Unfortunately, just as Cheetor had feared, Rattrap's battered body had rebelled against the idea of transformation. What little his self-repair systems had begun to heal of his mutilated shoulder and back had been viciously ripped apart again by the necessary reconfiguration of plates, joints and limbs. Rattrap still winced in memory of the tortured scream he'd been unable to bite back as he'd converted to his animal form. Although the spy no longer had to worry about energon surges overloading his electrical systems and sending him into stasis lock, his entire back, sides and hips now throbbed with agony instead of only one centralized location on his shoulder - everything having been shifted apart and reconfigured by the transformation. In beast-mode Quickstrike's blast wound now rested just above his right rear wheel. Even now, several hours after being forced to transform, his hip and right leg still burned with pain as though every neural line in that limb had been dunked in sulfuric acid. Dried mech-fluid from the reopened wound covered his lower half in a thin, silvery blue crust. Rattrap shifted uncomfortably in place, unable to find a position to help ease the sting of his injury.

"We have to keep trying, Rattrap," Cheetor sighed, pausing long enough in his futile mission to cast the spy a tired look. "We can't just sit here and wait for the storm to pass. It's been going on for hours now and still hasn't shown any sign of letting up. Your self-repair systems aren't working fast enough to heal that laser wound. You need a CR chamber. We can't just sit here waiting indefinitely for the weather to clear."

Rattrap huffed and huddled closer to the wall. As much as he wanted to be safely back aboard the Axalon where a warm cube of energon and a CR chamber weren't far from reach, he wasn't about to let him entertain such childish fantasies. His pessimism wouldn't allow it. They were more than a hundred miles from base, injured, pinned down by the worst storm any of them had ever seen on this dust ball planet, and without any form of radio communications.

They weren't going anywhere anytime soon…

"Wha'eva," Rattrap shrugged. "Ya go right ahead an' keep tryin' ta radio base, if dat's what'll make ya happy."

Cheetor frowned. "Listen, RT… I know it's not really any of my business, but are you and Dinobot having some kind of fight? She sounded really mad before when you called into base."

Rattrap was instantly on the defensive. "Yer right, kid. It _is_ none ov' yer business. So just let it drop," he snapped.

Startled by Rattrap's angry tone, the younger Maximal fell silent and cringed back like a chastised kitten. Rattrap almost instantly regretted taking out his frustrations from his unresolved fight with Dinobot out on the scout. _Why does dat darn kid always hafta stick his nose inta things when I'm least in da mood ta deal wit' him_, Rattrap wondered with a disgruntled sigh. It was times like these he really began to feel his age and the crankiness that seemed to inherently come with it.

Tying to make his tone as conciliatory as possible, he said in a gentler voice, "Why don'cha keep tryin' ta get da others on da line. Ya never know, maybe ya really will manage ta get through."

"Yeah, okay…" Cheetor mumbled. Obviously still stinging from Rattrap's rebuke he edged closer to the entrance of the cave and tapped his comm-line, though with much less enthusiasm than before. Rattrap tried to ignore the brief pang of guilt in his spark. The kid would get over it soon enough. He always did.

For maybe twenty minutes, Cheetor continued to try every known Maximal frequency despite the uninterrupted hiss of static that always answered him. Fiddling with the settings, he sent the same message over and over again on each new subsequent frequency.

"Cheetor to base. Come in. Rattrap and I are stuck in a cave. The storm's got us pinned down. We're both okay, but we can't leave. Please respond. Over."

Rattrap gave a tired sigh and leaned heavily against the wall when only static answered Cheetor, just as expected. Maybe if he powered down for a couple of hours it would help his self-repair systems mend some of the damage above his right leg. It was a tempting notion. Not to mention that it would also give him a short reprieve from the younger Maximal's futile attempts of reestablishing radio contact with base. Rattrap let his optics dim. He was so tired. He briefly wondered if shock from his injuries wasn't beginning to finally set in. It would certainly explain the cloying sense of exhaustion pulling him closer and closer to the cusp of sleep. Already the pain in his back and side felt strangely dulled by encroaching oblivion.

Unfortunately, before he could drift the last several inches into the yawning back abyss, a crackled hiss of static exploded from Cheetor's comm-link line on the other side of the cave.

"_Axa- __**schzzzzz**__- to Cheetor. We read y-__**schzzzzz-**__ Please spea -__**schzzzz**__- ouder. __**-Schzzzzzz-**__ ifficult to understand you due to elec __**-schzzzzzz- **__ference. Over."_

For a moment neither Rattrap or Cheetor knew how to respond. Both of them stared at each other in incredulous shock.

_Dang kid actually did it, _the spy realized with a jolt. Ignoring the stab of pain that coursed down the length of his spinal column and leg at the abrupt movement, Rattrap got to his feet and scrambled to Cheetor's side to hear better.

"Silverbolt, is that you?" Cheetor called into the link. Outside the cave thunder rumbled like the stomach of some titanic predator searching for its next meal.

"_Yes! S__**chzzzz**__- ou and Rattrap oka- __**schzzzzz-**__?"_

"Yeah," Cheetor shouted over the wind. "Rattrap got blasted in the back by Quickstrike, but he doesn't seem to be critically injured."

" _Rattr- __**schhhh-**__" _a new voice called over the line. It took the spy a moment to recognize it as Optimus's through all the static. "_Something's happened. Dinob- __**schzzzzzz**__- nto labor. Rhinox and Air - __**schzzzzz**__- atching over her, bu - __**schzzzz**__- arkling looks like it's coming."_

Every piston in Rattrap's body locked, every diode froze. His spark constricted into a tiny ball in the center of his chest. "Wha was dat? Repeat wha'cha just said!" he yelled into the link. He had to be sure he'd heard correctly. If what he thought he'd heard through the garbled transmission was correct Optimus had said his and Dinobot's sparkling was coming.

"_**Schzzzzz -**__bot's delivery sequence's been triggered_," Optimus's voice called over the line again. "_She's in labor. The sparkling's com- __**schzzzzzz-**__ now!"_

Rattrap went rigid as Optimus's words sunk in. His entire body felt paralyzed. The sparkling was coming. His and Dinobot's sparkling was coming. But it was too early! Sparklings needed at least seven weeks of gestation underneath their carrier's sparkchamber before they could safely be brought online. Dinobot was still several days away from being safely within that time frame. Nor was Dinobot's physically ready for labor. Her body had had no time to begin the slow natural shift of internal parts that usually began in the carrier's chest about a week before delivery.

Ghostly images of his dream flashed in the back of Rattrap's processor. Images of Dinobot covered in a glistening wet coat of her own mech-fluid; of the gaping, bleeding hole in her chest; of their sparkling laying motionless and limp in her lap, its tiny head dangling over the side of her thigh.

A thick wave of nausea rose in the back of Rattrap's throat. _No_, he thought, desperately trying to swallow back the bitter taste invading his mouth. He couldn't let that horrific dream become reality. He had to stop it from happening.

So consumed by panic and dread, the spy almost missed the rest of Optimus's transmission. "_Send - __**schzzzz **__-ur current position's coordinates. Once this -__** schzzzz **__- orm starts to break, I'm going to personally co - schzzzz -ith a team to airlift you two back to base_."

"Ugh un," Rattrap said, shaking his head. "We're headin' back ta base _now_, storm or no storm! My kid's 'bout ta be born an' I ain't missin' it. It'll be faster if we start headin' back ourselves."

"_Rattrap, no!" _Optimus's voice yelled through the link. "_The storm's too stro - __**schzzz**__ -ight now! Just stay put and wait for a team to airlift you back_."

"No can do, Big Ape," Rattrap said, already limping for the entrance. "I ain't lettin' Choppa'face do dis alone. I ain't gonna let her die while I'm out here in da middle ov' nowhere sitting on my rear. I don't care if I hafta go through da Pit itself ta get back, I'm gonna be der when my kid comes online!"

"Rattrap, it's not safe to go out there," Cheetor called, darting after him. "You could get lost in the rain, or struck by lighting, or blown off some cliff by the wind! Just hold tight like Big Boss said and he'll come get us as soon as he can."

"_Stay wher - __**schzzz**__ - ou are, Rattrap_," Optimus's distorted voice chimed in over the comm-link. "_I promise you I'll come get you as - __**schzzz**__ - oon as I can_."

But Rattrap was not to be deterred. "You can stay here, kid, if dat's wha'chu wanna do, but I've got a lover back at base who's havin' my sparkling. I ain't waitin' here fer no one, hear me! It's Optimus's fault I'm stuck out here in da first place, so I don' wanna hear _any_ kind'ov orders comin' from him telling me wha' I should or shouldn't do right now."

Rattrap knew Optimus could hear him over Cheetor's comm-line - which had partially been his intent - but he was slightly surprised when Optimus didn't issue any more orders to hold his position. The only thing to drift across the link was a staticky hiss of stunned silence.

Gritting his teeth against the deep tearing sensation in his hind quarters, Rattrap shifted his wheel rims down while folding and locking his animal legs tightly up underneath his chassis. Burning hot pain sizzled through his back's damaged neural lines. With an experimental rev of his engines he inched towards the entrance. Beyond the cave's rocky overhang rain and wind lashed the air with wrathful intent. Gale force winds buffeted the spy's face with all the gentleness of a drunken, barroom-brawl fist. Trickles of water ran down his transmetal plating from the misty back spray of water cascading over the overhang's edge, seeping between the seams of his armor and soaking the protomatter beneath. An audio-deafening boom of thunder cracked somewhere directly overhead.

"Rattrap, no!" Cheetor desperately cried, almost dancing in place behind him with anxiety. "It's too dangerous!"

The spy paused, staring out into the driving sheets of rain. He could barely see twenty feet ahead of him through the blurry curtains of water. "It's too dangerous if I don't go," he murmured, steeling his resolve. "I'm not gonna have Lizard Lip's blood on my hands, or my kid's. I gotta go."

Then, without even a backwards glance to see if Cheetor followed him or not, the spy gunned all four cylinders and sped out into the angry deluge in the direct of his pregnant lover and child.

_To Be Continued…_

A Short History Lesson:  
Childbirth is the most dangerous and deadly process a woman can go through. Back in the days before modern medicine 1 in 8 women could be expected to die during childbirth (hence the practice of polygamy in many cultures throughout history.) Death was usually due to dehydration, exhaustion, infection, hemorrhaging, or other birth-related complications. In fact, recent statistics released on childbirth-related deaths show that US mortality rates have been steadily on the rise the last few years despite modern medical advances. The more you know…

Please review!


	13. Waiting Game

**Chapter Thirteen: Waiting Game**

_(19:23)_

Dinobot's steps were shaky as she paced the length of the med-bay. Another realignment had just passed several minutes ago, leaving her drained and unsteady on her feet. But she refused to let any weakness show that would alert Airazor or either of her other two unwanted attendants to her state. She didn't want their coddling, nor did she think she'd be able to stand it if they started pestering her with any more of their attention. It was difficult enough keeping a stoic mask in place through each new bout of pain without having to endure the soft-sparked Maximals' concern as an addition distraction. Despite her best efforts to hide her growing fatigue, though, there was no way the warrioress could deny the oppressive weariness that seemed to weigh more and more heavily on her as the hours oozed past.

Her labor had passed into its ninth hour some time ago. Evening had long since set. Despite what her internal chronometer said Dinobot felt like it'd been twice as long. She'd lost count of how many realignments she'd endured thus far. When she'd first been dragged to med-bay each alignment seemed to come at regular intervals of forty-five minutes or so, lasting for only a couple minutes before gradually fading away again into a dull, splitting ache in her chest. The interim time had since shrunk to only half an hour with each internal shift lasting twice as long as before.

Despite the female warrior's familiarity with pain each realignment seemed to strike her new each and every time. It was startling, this pain. Dinobot had never felt anything like it. It seemed to cut straight through her to her very core, ripping her apart from the inside out. And it only seemed to intensify with each new realignment. It was becoming increasingly difficult for her not to scream under each new assault. Just the memory of the last bout of pain made Dinobot knead her knuckles into the distended swell of her chest. She'd begun to secretly fear each new attack. If she were on the battlefield and wounded, she could do a quick field-repair or just ignore the injury and refocus her attention on attacking the enemy. But here in med-bay, with no external wound for her to patch and no enemy for her to fight or funnel her pain towards as murderous intent, Dinobot had no idea what to do. This tearing sensation was alien and unlike any other pain she'd ever felt before. She had no previous experience she could fall back on.

She was beginning to truly question her ability to see this delivery through. It'd already been nine hours since her delivery sequence was triggered, and as Rhinox had said when he'd examined her progress several realignments ago, she was nowhere close to delivering yet. That worried Dinobot. If this horrible, torturous pain was only the beginning of what she still had to look forward to, she feared she wouldn't see the end of this pregnancy with her honor still intact. Just this last shift of internal parts had almost made her scream out in unbearable pain and her knees go out from under her. If the next realignment was the same or even worse than that one, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to maintain her composure. Not to mention the other untold number of realignments she'd still have to endure after that. She knew even now that her steadily dwindling reserves of strength weren't going to allow her to keep pacing like this for much longer.

Coming to the end of her circuit, Dinobot sluggish turned and began her trek back down the length of the room. Her raptor claws made dull, tired clicking sounds against the tiles. Airazor and Rhinox stood together on the far side of the room talking in hushed tones while Blackarachnia sat on the edge of one of the berths with both arms crossed underneath her breastplate and one leg thrown over the other - her body language indifferent and bored. Dinobot pointedly ignored them. Except for Rhinox who was to act as her medic in the event something happened, she didn't need them there. Yes, Airazor had helped steady her by the arm several times when a realignment had taken her by surprise and almost sent her stumbling to the floor. And, yes, Blackarachnia had stayed despite her obvious desire to be anywhere else but there. But Dinobot took no comfort in their presence or found any strength in their company. She didn't want them to see her in such a pitiful state. She didn't want them to see her grit her teeth or clutch her chest in silent agony. She didn't want an audience as she slipped farther and farther away from herself into excruciating pain.

There was only one person she would have willingly tolerated beside her right now, and that was her lover and the sire of this sparkling.

Almost unconscious to her own actions, Dinobot released a shaky sigh of relief. Even now, several hours after receiving words from the main deck, she still shuddered with what could have almost been described as suppressed giddiness. It had taken her completely by surprise when Tigatron's voice crackled over the ship's comm-link system and told them Rattrap and Cheetor were still alive. If her pride hadn't prevented her from making such a shameful display, Dinobot probably would have sunk to the edge of a berth and laughed with relief. Instead, she'd been able to restrain her emotions to nothing more than a shaky exhale of air and an involuntary shiver through her internal tension cables.

It'd been so close. So very, very _close_. She'd been so sure she'd lost the rat. A part of the warrioress still burned with resentment for some of the things he'd said before leaving. But knowing he was still alive after spending so many hours believing him dead and herself alone to bear the burden of unwanted creator-hood dampened a lot of Dinobot's lingering hurt and resentment. Somehow remaining angry at the vermin for their fight no longer seemed as important as it once did.

Unfortunately, Tigatron had said that Rattrap and Cheetor were pinned down by some massive storm front moving in from the south. Optimus was to go airlift Rattrap back to base once the weather lessened.

Dinobot angrily spun on her heels and began the long trek back to the other side of the room. The sparkling pulled heavily on her sparkchamber, making her even more irritable. Even though the rat was still alive it was doubtful he'd be able to return to base for at least another twenty-four hours. That wasn't soon enough! She wanted the rat here! _Now!_ This was his sparkling she was bearing. It was only right that he be there to claim it when it came online. To the Pit with whatever she'd said before about not wanting him there, she didn't want to do this alone. She wanted the pestilent smart-mouth there beside her, distracting her from her pain with his crude jokes and even cruder insults. She needed to see for herself that he was really still alive and not laying in the middle of some field with a smoking hole through his sparkchamber. She needed to feel with her own hands his smaller body and smell the pungency of his odor to reassure herself that Optimus and the other mechs on bridge weren't trying to trick her with some cruel joke. She wanted her lover there with her, right now. He was the only bot she truly trusted amongst the Maximal crew, and who she didn't balk at the idea of him seeing her writhe in the grips of merciless labor pains.

Unfortunately, such a simple desire was not to be fulfilled as a crippling wave of pain sliced through the center of her chest cavity. Dinobot was unable to choke back a startled gasp of pain as one hand flew to the middle of her breastplate and the other blindly shot out for something to grab onto and steady herself with. Her knees locked beneath her, forcing her to halt her pacing. Every component inside her chest seized tight and quivered with tension. It felt like some supernatural force was reaching down inside her chest and prying her rib struts apart. Dinobot's optics involuntarily shuttered, throwing her visual readout into darkness.

There was the sound of hurried movement off to the side, and within seconds Airazor was beside her, gripping her elbow as the warrioress fought to keep from screaming out. She eagerly grabbed hold of Airazor's hand when the other femme offered it to her to clench.

"It's alright, Dinobot, I got you," the flier whispered reassuringly into her audio as the pain continued to tear her insides apart in preparation for the coming sparkling. "Just keep taking deep intakes. It's alright. We're all here for you."

Dinobot could do nothing more than helplessly cling to her in her agony. Her entire superstructure trembled with pain. No matter how much the warrioress still tried to convince herself she didn't need Airazor or anyone else's help, she couldn't deny the involuntary desperation with which she gripped the flier's hand. Even though Airazor said she and everyone else were there to help her, none of them were who Dinobot really wanted. The mech she wanted was stuck somewhere on the farthest edges of the planet's mapped terrain while the worst storm any of them had ever seen before unleashed its fury on the earth outside. The entire Maximal crew could have been packed into that med-bay offering her their support, but without Rattrap there by her side she might as well have been completely alone…

* * *

_(23:14)_

Rain lashed the air like a hundred thousand icy needles as Rattrap barreled through the stormy night. It was coming down so hard the spy could barely un-shutter his optics enough to see. He was literally running blind. Night had fallen several hours ago. It was almost the middle of the night. All day it had felt like they were trapped in some perpetual state of dusk, but it was only after the sun had set and its watery source of light had disappeared from the sky that Rattrap realized what true darkness was. Pitch blackness yawned in all directions around him. He had no idea where he was going except in a general northeast direction. He could only get a general sense of what lay before him whenever a bolt of lightning slashed across the sky and burned black-and-white afterimages of the surrounding landscape into his optics' refractory lens.

Wind viciously buffeted Rattrap from behind, batting him from side to side as though he were nothing more than a rag doll. It was almost like the powerful gusts were sentient beings hell-bent on slamming him headfirst into some passing tree or rock. Lowering his head against the hurricane-like gales, the spy gunned his engine faster. He had to maintain his heading. He couldn't afford to be blown off course. Not when he was so close…

Off to his right, Cheetor ran close beside him, keeping pace. Despite the younger Maximal's initial misgivings about going against Optimus's orders to stay and wait for rescue, he'd reluctantly caved to peer pressure and followed Rattrap into the raging deluge. Although the transmetal cheetah ran only several feet away from him, Rattrap could barely see him through the pounding sheets of rain.

Despite the fearsome wind, rain and oppressive darkness the two Maximals sped across the quantum wave-scorched plains at a dangerously high clip. Rattrap's internal odometer was clocking them around thirty-five miles an hour - an almost suicidal speed given the tempest and their inability to see no more than a few dozen yards in front of them whenever lightning happened to illuminate the sky. Under normal circumstances Rattrap never would have even _considered_ going outside in such weather, let alone traveling through it like they were now. Under normal circumstances he would have willingly followed Optimus's orders and hunkered down in the back of their cave to wait out the storm until a rescue team came to airlift them back to base.

But now wasn't normal circumstances. Now went beyond any situation the Maximal spy had ever faced before. His pregnant lover was in labor, their sparkling on the way. He didn't have the luxury of caring about his own safety right now. He had to hurry and get to her. Right now all that mattered was Dinobot and their sparkling. Who knew what was happening back at base. Was Dinobot alright? Was she still in labor? Had she already delivered? Was their sparkling alright? Was it healthy? Had it come online too soon? Was it still alive? Was Dinobot?

Haunting images of his dream leapt unbidden to the forefront of Rattrap's processor - of Dinobot covered in sticky mech-fluid and their sparkling laying limp in her lap. He unconsciously forced his wheels to churn the soupy ground faster. He had to get back to base! There was no saying what was happening. He might already be too late. For all he knew both Dinobot and their sparkling had drifted into the Well of Allsparks. If only he could radio to base to check. But Rattrap couldn't bring himself to spare the time to stop, fumble with the frequencies and hope that fate allowed him to pick up a strong enough signal. That transmission they'd been able to get back in the cave had probably been a one-time fluke. He couldn't afford such a delay. He felt like there was some invisible clock in the back of his head, silently ticking down the seconds to some terrible end that could only be stopped if he made it to his lover's side before it reached zero.

A powerful gust of wind suddenly came out of nowhere, buffeting Rattrap sharply to the side. His wheels skid in the mud, almost slipping out from under him. His actuator momentarily jumped into the back of his intake line. He somehow managed to straighten himself and sped on through the driving sheets of rain.

"Rattrap!" Cheetor called over the wind's angry howl. Although Rattrap knew the younger Maximal was yelling his voice sounded strangely distant, as though he were calling from the other end of a long and narrow tunnel. "Don't you think we should slow down a bit? You almost wiped out back there!"

"No can do, kid!" he shouted into the headwind. "We're almost der! I can feel it!"

And he could. He and Cheetor had been traveling for over five hours now - pushing themselves as fast as they possibly could through the worst storm any of them had ever seen. Unfortunately, because of the weather their progress back to base had been much slower than their original journey to Gamma-3. Rattrap had lost count of how many times he'd almost injured himself even worse in the rainy dark. He'd be lucky to make it back to base in one piece at this rate. His right leg and back was a fiery mass of pain. His frantic dash through the storm hadn't done anything to help his self-repair systems heal Quickstrike's laser blast. The only thing working in his favor seemed to be the rain, whose icy chill helped numb the worst of the pain in his back to a tolerable throb. Tiredness, both mental and physical, pulled at every circuit of his body but he forced himself to ignore it. He didn't have time to worry about exhaustion or pain. His only focus was on getting back to base and his pregnant lover.

"Come on, Rattrap!" Cheetor yelled over a crack of thunder. "We can't keep going like this! We don't even know if we're going in the right direction! We could be passing through Predacon territory and not even know it! We should look for shelter and wait until it dies down a bit!"

"Shut up, kid!" Rattrap snapped. "I know we're gettin' close! I just saw da hills dat're on da edge of sector one! We're almost der! Probably only a few more miles!"

Rattrap didn't wait to hear or see Cheetor's reaction as he forged ahead into the night. A flash of lightening streaked across the sky almost directly above them. A booming peal of thunder followed immediately in its wake. For a brief second the landscape was brilliantly illuminated, allowing Rattrap to see into the distance. At first the spy thought his optics were somehow being tricked by the strobing effect of the lightning. But when another bolt lit up one entire corner of the sky, Rattrap could not deny what he saw.

Up ahead, maybe two or three miles from his and Cheetor's present location sat the Axalon. A near overwhelming surge of relieved joy coursed through Rattrap's systems. Finally. They were home.

Putting on an extra burst of speed Rattrap pulled ahead of Cheetor, sending a massive rooster-tail of mud and rainwater curling up into the air behind him. A startled shout came from the racer, but it was quickly drowned out by the roar of Rattrap's engines. All the spy could focus on was reaching the ship as it loomed closer and closer in the rainy darkness.

Floodlights suddenly flared to life at different points all around the Axalon. They must have passed the ship's outermost defensive ring. They were now within firing range of Sentinel's gun turrets. But Rattrap saw none of the ship's automated defenses spring to life and lock onto his and Cheetor's energy signatures.

_Looks like someone's waitin' up fer us,_ he idly quipped as he sped past the glare of floodlights and underneath the starship. Rattrap's back wheels swept out from under him in a giant arch as he skid to a halt and transformed to robot-mode in one smooth motion. Pain shot through his shoulder and back as his body unfolded and locked into its new formation. He felt the damaged protomatter across his shoulder tear apart again.

Someone indeed must have been manning the deck despite the late hour because a lift was already sliding down from the ship's underbelly to pick him up. He didn't even wait for Cheetor to catch up with him before throwing himself into the narrow space and savagely punching the activation button to go back up.

The lift seemed to take forever to rise. Rattrap could barely hold in his impatience before the doors finally hissed open again with a hermetic sigh. Blinding light assaulted his optics as he threw himself out of the lift onto the Axalon's bridge. A pool of rainwater almost instantly formed beneath him on the floor. It was only now as he stood still for the first time in almost five hours that he realized just how hard he was cycling for intakes and how hot his engine was rattling inside his chassis. His entire body trembled with overexertion. Steam wafted off his wet superstructure in smoky little wisps.

"Rattrap!" a voice rang out from the other side of the bridge. "Thank the Matrix! We all feared you were dead!"

As Rattrap's optics adjusted to the warm light, he realized it was Tigatron who had greeted him. Blinking furiously to get his bearings, he saw that Silverbolt and Optimus were also there and standing up from their seats as though they'd all been sitting around waiting for his and Cheetor's arrival.

Optimus was the first to move forward. "Rattrap, are you alright? You're bleeding!" He was staring at the re-torn laser wound in his right shoulder.

"Primus!" Silverbolt exclaimed. "He needs a CR chamber. I'll start the warm-up sequence on one of them."

"No," Rattrap said, vehemently shaking his head as he backed away from the well-meaning mechs as quickly as he could. He couldn't let them distract them from what he needed to do. He speared them with a panicked look of desperation. "Where is she? Where's Dinobot?"

"Med-bay," Tigatron replied. "She's with Airazor, Blackarachnia and Rhinox."

Without another word, the spy spun around and bolted for the nearest door.

"Rattrap, wait!" Optimus called after him. "You need medical attention!"

But the spy was already gone, leaving nothing but a watery trail of mud and rainwater in his wake.

On the other side of the bridge, the second lift rose into view. Cheetor's tired and muddy figure stepped out when the door slid open, and grumpily looked around the bridge. "Nice Rattrap decided to wait for me…" he grumbled before trudging to the nearest chair and promptly collapsing into it.

* * *

_(23:47)_

Blackarachnia was beginning to worry. Dinobot had been in labor for the entire afternoon and evening and still showed no signs of delivering. Just how long did it take to squeeze a sparkling out anyway? All she'd been hearing the other crewmembers talk about for the last two weeks was how little the warrioress was showing her pregnancy. If she was carrying such a small sparkling shouldn't that mean her delivery would be quicker and easier than normal? The black widow had half expected the raptor to deliver within hours of being dragged to med-bay. Instead, Dinobot's realignments only continued to worsen and her strength dwindle more and more as the hours trudged by with still no end in sight.

The raptor had given up pacing about an hour ago. She'd since taken to sitting on the edge of one of the berths and clenching its sides whenever a new internal shift hit her. Rhinox and Airazor hovered close behind her despite Dinobot's subtle glares warning them to stay away from her unless she was in the grips of a realignment. Blackarachnia didn't need any other kind of encouragement and maintained a healthy distance from the pregnant femme. She had no desire to lose any limbs.

Despite the black widow's apparent indifference to the other ex-Predacon's plight, however, there was no denying the seed of concern that had begun to form in the back of her sparkchamber. Dinobot was beginning to weaken. She could see it on the other femme's facial plates no matter how hard Dinobot tried to mask it. Condensation coated her forehead and neck in a watery sheen. The warrioress's shoulders sagged with exhaustion. Her intakes were labored and rough. The delicate protomatter around her optics was pinched and discolored a sickly shade of cobalt blue from stress. And it was obviously becoming more and more difficult for the warrioress to stifle her screams as the labor pains deepened. Her one hand never seemed to drop away from her breastplate where the worst of her pain originated.

Blackarachnia frowned. If this kept up much longer she wasn't sure she'd be able to keep her promise to Silverbolt. She didn't care what kind of sad puppy-dog eyes he gave her, she didn't want to see Dinobot like this. It was disturbing and wrong to see such a proud femme reduced to such a helpless state. It wasn't right. She'd come to see Dinobot in her mind as some kind of living force of nature - invincible, brutal and without rival on the battlefield. But to see her like this was a harsh reminder that the fearsome warrioress was still just a mortal being like any of the rest of them. Blackarachnia's desire to flee the room became stronger with each passing hour. Besides the overall sense of _wrongness_ she felt about being there, the black widow was growing tired and bored. It was almost midnight. She'd been stuck in med-bay for almost the entire day with nothing for her to do except watch and take up space. She wanted to go back to her quarters and recharge - far away from the pregnant warrioress and the horrors of sparkbearing. But the ex-Predacon femme still showed no signs of delivering, making escape anytime soon improbable.

A sudden commotion in the hallway startled Blackarachnia out of her thoughts. It was the sound of running feet, heading directly towards them.

Blackarachnia wasn't the only one that'd heard. Rhinox, Airazor and Dinobot all looked up at the door too.

"Who is that?" Airazor wondered out loud.

The footsteps drew closer, the heavy staccato reverberating down the corridor like rapid gunfire. The unidentified person finally came to the med-bay's door. The door slid open and a disheveled figure stumbled inside, flinging rainwater everywhere. It took Blackarachnia a startled moment to realize that the mech was none other than the sire of Dinobot's sparkling himself, Rattrap, alive and not trapped on the other side of Gamma-3 where she thought he was suppose to be.

"Choppa'face!" the spy called, frantically looking around the room. Mud covered half his superstructure and rainwater the rest. Beneath his one wheel rim his shoulder was a charred mess of transmetal plates and wires. Even from a distance Blackarachnia could see thin trickles of mech-fluid dripping from the wound's torn edges.

Blackarachnia and the room's other three occupants all sat frozen with shock, not quite sure how to react to the spy's unexpected entrance.

Rattrap finally spotted Dinobot on other side of the room. His entire body visibly sagged with relief. Without a pause he scrambled towards her. "Choppa-face, thank Primus. Da Big Ape said over da radio dat ya were havin' da sparkling now. I came as quick as I could but-"

Unfortunately, Rattrap didn't get a chance to say anything else or cover the last few feet needed to reach out and touch his lover before Dinobot abruptly stood from the berth, cocked her hand back in a tight fist, and promptly slugged the spy square across the jaw.

Rattrap went flying backwards and hit the ground with a metallic rattle. Blackarachnia, Airazor and Rhinox all froze - too startled to say or do anything. Rattrap lay on his back, staring up at Dinobot with a stunned expression.

Dinobot's face was suddenly a fearsome contortion of wrath. Her optics literally blazed with fury as she glared down at her mud-smeared lover. Her hands were balled into two shaking fists. "You pestilence riddled _vermin!_" she shrieked down at him. "I _told_ you not to go on that accursed mission, but did you listen to me? _No!_ You went anyway and almost got yourself terminated! If I didn't want to not have to raise this sparkling by myself, I might just finish the job Megatron's lackeys were unable to do themselves!"

Dinobot's anger was nearing apocalyptic proportions. Rattrap didn't dare move or speak. He just stared up at her with frightened optics.

_Stay down if you know what's good for you,_ Blackarachnia silently counseled. Rule number one when facing down a dangerous predator or an angry femme: don't make any sudden movements.

"How dare you return now like some kind of hero from the battlefront after you made me believe you'd been killed! I should tear you apart where you lay!" Dinobot snarled. She flexed one set of claws at him threateningly. "It would be just payment for the ordeal you've put me through!"

But before the warrioress could make good on her threat she suddenly froze in place and clutched her chest with both hands. All hostility abruptly left her only to be replaced with an aura of agonized pain as another realignment ripped through her chest cavity.

"Oh Primus," Airazor said, hurrying to Dinobot's side to steady her before she could collapse. "Look what you did. You went and got yourself all worked up."

Dinobot seemed unable to answer and instead focused all her attention on drawing steady intakes through clenched dentals. Her entire superstructure visibly trembled with pain.

Despite his lover's recent threat on his life, Rattrap hastily pushed himself to his pedes and took a cautious step closer. "Wha' is it? Wha's wrong with her?" The uncertain panic in his voice was palpable.

"A realignment," Rhinox said, stepping up to the two femmes to take Dinobot's other arm. Together he and Airazor forcefully led her back towards the berth. "Her internal components have to shift aside to make room for the sparkling to pass through. As you can see, it's not a pleasant process."

Rattrap anxiously trailed behind them as the two helped ease Dinobot down onto the berth. The warrioress seemed to withdraw into herself to shield against the pain. Rattrap hovered uncertainly for several seconds off to the side as though worried Dinobot might still try to lash out and strike him. But as Dinobot's labor pains deepened and her face darkened with mech-fluid and her expression twisted into an agonized grimace, Rattrap finally could take no more. Stepping closer he reached out and placed a tentative hand on Dinobot's shoulder guard. He rubbed his palm in slow, heavy circles against her superstructure. When her realignment finally passed several minutes later, the warrioress wearily lifted her head and looked up at him questioningly.

"I'm sorry," Rattrap murmured, barely louder than a whisper. "Fer everything… I shouldn' ov gone on dat mission, an' I shouldn' ov said those things. I didn't mean any of it. I'm sorry…" His hand slowly drifted from Dinobot's shoulder down to her chassis and cupped the distended swell of their sparkling.

Blackarachnia blinked in quiet shock. For as long as she'd been a crewmember she'd never _once_ heard the spy apologize for anything. She'd come to suspect he was physically incapable of it.

Dinobot stared at him as though unsure whether to believe his sincerity or not. She seemed just as startled by his apology as Blackarachnia. But then with a disgruntled huff the raptor abruptly looked away from him as though embarrassed by his sentiments. "Speak like that to me again or ignore my wishes one more time and I really will eviscerate you, rodent, sparkling or no," she grumbled under her breath.

Despite Dinobot's still angry tone, Blackarachnia didn't miss the way the warrioress's body seemed to untense and relax under Rattrap's touch. Almost imperceptibly, Dinobot leaned closer to him.

"You look horrible, vermin," she noted with a sneer.

Rattrap heaved a weary sigh. "You have no idea wha' kinda fresh hell I hadta go through ta get back."

"Did you really travel all the way here through that storm?" Rhinox asked. Almost as in answer, a muffled boom of thunder echoed through the ship's armored hull from outside.

The spy nodded tiredly.

"You're absolutely crazy," Airazor said. "You could have been killed out there. Tigatron said it's the worst storm he's ever seen before, and that's saying a lot."

"Almost was killed a couple times. But let's not make a big deal out'ov it, kay?" Rattrap said. "My reputation as dis crew's self-preservationist's already tarnished enough as it is."

Rhinox took a step closer and leaned down over him to examine the spy's shoulder. "Your back's a complete mess," he rumbled with a frown. "Looks like you re-injured it couple times."

Rattrap shrugged indifferently. "Hadta do it ta transform."

The engineer's expression darkened. "Well, you might have done some long term damage to yourself doing that. Several neural lines look severed - probably from when your body shifted to transform. Doesn't look too serious though. You can still move your arm at least. A few hours in the CR chamber should fix you up."

Rattrap shook his head. "Naw. I'm stayin' here til Choppa'face delivers. I'll use da CR chamber later after I know her an' da sparkling 're okay."

"Vermin, it is doubtful I will deliver anytime within the immediate future. Go repair yourself," Dinobot said.

"Uh ugh," Rattrap shook his head. "I ain't leavin'. I'm stayin' right here. I don't trust ya not ta do anything stupid while I'm away anymore."

Dinobot looked ready to shoot back with some stinging comment, but was swiftly intercepted by Rhinox. "Then at least get yourself cleaned up. You're dripping muddy water everywhere. I want this area clean for the delivery. If you want to be here to see your sparkling come online then I suggest you go make yourself presentable."

Rattrap still looked hesitant, as though unwilling to let Dinobot out of his sight even for a few minutes to go take a quick run through the nearest wash rack. He glanced at Dinobot, seeking her permission.

"Go," she said with a sharp thrust of her chin towards the door. "I will not suffer through labor with you here covered in mud and stinking of dead plant matter."

"Yea, yea, alright, fine. Gessh," the spy huffed, and turned towards the door. "I'll be back."

As the spy disappeared into the hallway, Blackarachnia decided now was as good a time as any to make her move. She quietly stood and slunk to Rhinox's side. "Hey, since the rat's back, don't you think it's getting a little bit crowded in here? Wouldn't it be better if I left? You know, too many servos in the oil drum, and all?" She flashed the engineer one of her most charming smiles.

Rhinox, however, was unruffled by her coy attempt at persuasion. He eyed her suspiciously for several moments of silence - just long enough to make Blackarachnia wonder if she'd have to wait out the rest of Dinobot's labor after all - before finally shrugging his massive shoulders. "Fine. It's not like I need another 'bot in here crowding up my delivery area anyway."

Blackarachnia would have cackled with joy if she didn't think it'd make the engineer change his mind and find her something to do after all. "Anything to help," she simpered.

Rhinox scowled at her coyness and motioned her towards the door. "Go report to Optimus before you retire for the night. Tell him I've got everything under control down here but that he and the other should put the ship on automatic and go to bed. I doubt Dinobot's going to deliver before morning. No use in the entire crew waiting up."

Blackarachnia didn't need to be told twice, and with only one last glance at the pregnant warrioress hurried out of the door. _Finally_, she thought as she navigated the ship's dark corridors. _Thought I'd be stuck there forever. Lucky for me the little smart-aleck decided to play heroic father-to-be._

Within minutes Blackarachnia reached the Axalon's control room. Just as Rhinox had predicted Silverbolt, Tigatron and Optimus were still up. As she entered all three mechs looked up and turned to greet her.

"How's Dinobot?" Optimus immediately questioned, getting up from his seat.

"Fine, all things considering," Blackarachnia replied. "Rhinox told me to tell you you should all go to bed. It doesn't look like Dinobot's going to deliver tonight. This sparkling seems to be as stubborn as both its creators."

Despite the gravity of the situation, Optimus let a small smile quirk the one corner of his lips. "That wouldn't surprise me."

"What about Rattrap?" Tigatron asked. "He seemed very anxious about Dinobot before."

"The lizard almost knocked his head off when he came in, but she didn't cause any more damage than what he already came in with."

"I suppose that's partially my fault," Optimus admitted with a sigh. "I'll have to make it up to them once this is over."

"Where's the kitten?" Blackarachnia asked, glancing around the bridge. "Didn't he come back with the rat?"

"He went to his room to get cleaned up and rest," Silverbolt said as he stood from his seat to come towards her. "He was too tired to wait up."

"We should all probably follow his example and head to bed," Optimus opined. "Tomorrow will more than likely be a big day, and we should all be well rested in case Rhinox needs any help with Dinobot."

There were general murmurs of agreement all around. An unspoken pall of concern for the warrioress hung over the group. Although the four of them were heading to bed to recharge and rest all of them knew there wouldn't be any rest for the ones staying up with Dinobot in med-bay, not to mention the warrioress herself. A long and painful night awaited her. It seemed unfair that they should go to sleep while she stayed up and suffered, but there was nothing more any of them could do except wait and hope for the best. The rest was in Primus's hands now.

"Come," Silverbolt said, sidling up to Blackarachnia. "I'll walk you back to your rooms. You must be tired."

The black widow willingly took the fuzor's offered arm, and together the two slipped out of the room.

"I am very proud of you for going with Dinobot before," Silverbolt said as the two of them navigated the halls back towards the crew's personal quarters. "It took a lot of courage to do what you did. I know how reluctant you were to go."

Blackarachnia snorted derisively through her nose. "Don't give me too much credit, fido. I didn't do anything but sit there and be bored out of my processor for fourteen hours. At most you could say I supervised."

"Still," Silverbolt indulged, "you were there to offer your support when you could have easily refused to go."

"No I couldn't have," Blackarachnia scowled. "Because if I'd refused you would have just sat there and stared at me with those sad, dopey optics of yours. You gave me no other choice but to go."

Silverbolt cast her a playful grin. "Is that so? Then I will have to remember the effects my sad looks have on you. That knowledge might come in handy someday in the future."

"Oh please," Blackarachnia snorted. "Like you'd ever actually resort to blackmail. It'd go against your moral code."

Silverbolt shrugged good-humoredly as the two of them turned down another hallway. The crew's personal quarters were just ahead at the end of the hall. "Perhaps," he admitted with a smile. "But you should remember that I too was a Predacon once, even if only in name for a short while."

Despite herself Blackarachnia held back a smile. How did Silverbolt always know what to say to disarm her and make her feel like a giggly fem-bot? It wasn't fair.

The two came to the door of Blackarachnia's quarters.

"I hope you rest well tonight," Silverbolt said as the black widow unwound her arm from his elbow. "Hopefully Dinobot's ordeal will be over soon and we'll be able to greet the little one together as a crew tomorrow."

Blackarachnia deactivated the locks to her room, and turned back around towards him. "You really are looking forward to this sparkling, aren't you?"

"Of course," Silverbolt replied, a goofy grin was once again plastered across his face. "New life is always welcome, especially one sparked from two of our closest friends."

Blackarachnia stared at Silverbolt for a long moment of contemplative silence. She didn't like that wistful glint in the back of Silverbolt's optics as he looked at her. "Well, before you start getting any big ideas, if whatever this is between us goes any farther and we someday bond, don't expect me to carry a sparkling. _Ever_. Got it?"

Blackarachnia would have laughed at the startled expression on the fuzor's face if she wasn't so serious. She wasn't going to let herself go through what Dinobot was if there was anything in her power to do so.

With Silverbolt stunned speechless at the implications, the black widow decided now was as good a time as any to take her leave. "Goodnight," she said in a sultry whisper. Waving her pincher coquettishly over her shoulder, she stepped through the doorway into her room and let the door slide noiselessly shut behind her.

_To Be Continued_

Ain't no finer form of birth control than watching another woman go through labor, eh?


	14. Birth

**Chapter Fourteen: Birth**

_(9:32)_

Dinobot sat on the edge of the berth, bent over double at the waist. The distended swell of her chassis brushed the insides of her knees she sat so tightly curled against herself against the tearing pain of another realignment. She gripped the edge of the berth so hard with her knuckles were white with strain. Her entire body violently shook as though waves of high voltage electricity was being run through her circuits. Although she clenched her teeth to keep any sounds of discomfort from escaping she was unable to muffle the occasional whimpered grunt.

Rattrap looked on in distressed helplessness. Dinobot was almost into her twenty-fourth hour of labor with still no sign of delivering. She was beginning to weaken no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Rattrap was beginning to worry. For the last nine hours since he'd returned to base he'd sat up beside her trying to distract her from the pain whenever possible. At first Dinobot had responded to his prompts for a verbal spar just like how she always used to before her pregnancy. But as the hours lengthened and her labor pains continued to worsen with still no end in sight, the warrioress's responses became shorter, clipped and more distracted. With almost all her attention focused on surviving each new bout of pain, Dinobot no longer seemed able to focus on the spy. Despite his best efforts to help, Rattrap felt as though he was steadily losing his lover more and more to the hellish nightmare of sparkbearing.

"Come on, Choppa'face. Ya gotta keep takin' intakes," he coached as Dinobot gave a particularly sharp grunt of pain and leaned down harder against her knees. Her one hand flew up to clutch at her swollen breastplate. "Holdin' 'em in just make it worse." Unable to do anything more helpful, the spy rubbed his palm in what he hoped were soothing circles against the warrioress's side. After hours of countless realignments Dinobot's internal shifts had progressed to twenty minute intervals with each lasting several minutes.

Dinobot gasped in a shuddery intake that seemed to shake her entire frame. "Don't touch me!" she snarled and wrenched herself to the side out of Rattrap's reach. Her optics were unfocused and glassy at she attempted a glare at him. Unfortunately, any intimidation factor the warrioress might have once had was lost behind the exhaustion creasing every corner of her face. In many ways she reminded Rattrap of an injured animal: frightened by what was happening to her and unsure of what to do to make her torment stop, and because of that she resorted to lashing out at everything around her in her confused pain.

Panting heavily for intakes Dinobot turned her attention back inside herself and shuddered her optics. Her intakes were ragged. She seemed unable to draw enough air into her body to cool her overheated systems. Condensation dripped down the sides of her face in thick rivulets.

Rattrap quickly retracted his hand in case Dinobot decided to lash out at him. His jaw still ached in memory of when she'd punched him. Unable to do anything else, he could only watch as Dinobot gave another shuddery convulsion and stifled an agonized cry of pain. Helplessness clawed at the spy's spark like a pack of ravenous dogs. His instincts screamed at him to do something, to somehow lessen his lover's suffering, but he couldn't think of anything that wouldn't only agitate Dinobot more in her labor pains. Airazor had already removed most of Dinobot's armor and helm several hours ago to make her more comfortable. While it had helped ease some of the warrioress's suffering for awhile, it hadn't been enough to have too much of a comforting effect before the labor pains came back once again to tear her body apart from the inside out. Stripped of her superstructure's outer plating almost all the way down to her protoform, Dinobot now looked smaller, more vulnerable and frail - a completely different being from the fearsome warrioress they all knew. Rattrap figured that was probably what disturbed him the most as he looked at his pregnant lover. Without the bulk of her armor to hide it he could now see every ripple of pain through Dinobot's arms, shoulders and back. He could see with disturbing clarity every tremble of her blue protoform as her internal parts shifted apart to make way for their sparkling. It felt disconcerting and wrong to see the proud warrioress in such a vulnerable state. But Rattrap couldn't bring himself to look away or leave. This was his sparkling she was suffering to bring online. It was only right that he stay and help her see this through to the end.

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, Dinobot's body stopped shaking and her tension cables relaxed. She gasped a ragged intake and weakly pushed herself up straighter where she sat. Her optics were glazed as though she were in some state of mild shock. She swayed slightly from side to side where she sat.

Cautiously, Rattrap leaned towards her. "Ya still with me, Lizard Lips?"

Dinobot's optics groggily flickered into focus, and she turned her head to blearily look at him. "I'm fine, vermin," she lied in a suspiciously strained voice.

From off to the side, Rhinox stepped forward and scanned a long metal device across Dinobot's chest. The warrioress still seemed too dazed from her last realignment to make herself take much notice of it. Beside him, Airazor leaned forward to wipe a damp rag across Dinobot's face and neck. The raptor, again, seemed too tired to give any outward reaction to her attendant's ministrations.

Rhinox's facial plates tightened as he read the devices results.

"Wha' is it?" Rattrap demanded.

The engineer carefully subspaced the device into a hip compartment. "Dinobot's systems are beginning to run a little bit high. Her carburetor's running around 170RPM, and her spark's pulsing a little quicker than normal. It's nothing to worry about right now, but I'm going to begin monitoring her a bit closer for the rest of the delivery."

"How much longer is dis gonna take?" Rattrap asked, casting his lover an anxious glance as Airazor continued to mop the warrioress's brow. "I mean, I'm gonna admit, when I first got back I kinda thought once I got here da sparkling would come pretty quick. But we've been here fer hours an' Choppa'face still isn't ready ta deliver. Is dis normal?"

Rhinox heaved a shallow sigh. "Yes and no. Since this is Dinobot's first sparkling, her body doesn't know how to shift apart to make a passage for it. So the deliver's going to take a little longer than if this was her second or third. But at the same time, her delivery sequence was triggered early, so her body hasn't had the chance to go through the normal pre-delivery shifts. Usually those realignments begin several days before delivery and are so gradual the carrier doesn't even feel them. But since Dinobot's sequence was triggered more than a week and a half before her due date, her internal components haven't had any time to begin the shift. Her body's doing twice the amount of work now to get to where her internal parts need to be to be able to deliver. I know it's tiring, but you have to be patient, Rattrap. If these realignments happened any quicker they'd literally rip Dinobot apart inside. In all honesty, with a pre-term delivery sequence being the case, Dinobot's labor could last another thirty-six mega-cycles or more. We'll probably be lucky if she delivers before nightfall." That being said, Rhinox turned and strode towards the small assortment of machines and devices spread out across one of the berths on the other side of the room, and began rummaging through them.

Rattrap stared after him in mute horror. Thirty-six hours? He didn't know if Dinobot could last another thirty-six hours of this. She was already beginning to wear out. Dinobot was one of the strongest bots he knew, but he doubted her ability to survive such an marathon-length test of endurance. For the last several weeks the strain of pregnancy had taken a heavy toll on Dinobot. Rattrap wasn't sure how much reserve strength the warrioress had. As for himself, just sitting there offering his support whenever his lover allowed it, was draining. He'd been awake for over twenty-four hours now. His body physically ached for sleep. His wild trip both to and from Gamma-3 within that same time frame hadn't helped matters much either. His damaged back still throbbed fiercely with pain even when he sat perfectly still. Rattrap, however refused to leave Dinobot and seek out a CR chamber. He was determined to stay with her until their sparkling came online and he knew both she and their child were safe. Even if Rattrap were to go take a short nap he knew he wouldn't be able find any peace. He'd feel too guilty about leaving Dinobot to suffer alone to be able to find any rest. Not to mention memories of his dream would constantly haunt him until he was once again in his lover's presence. It wouldn't do him any good to leave, so he consigned himself to stay where he was. Until Dinobot delivered, his fate was interwoven with her own…

Beside him, Dinobot seemed to be sharing many of the same thoughts as him. With a feeble jerk of her head she wrenched herself away from Airazor and her helpful touch. "Thirty-six more hours?" she murmured in a horrified whisper. "How can any femme survive so long in the grips of labor? It's not possible." Her one hand unconsciously kneaded the swell of her chest.

"Don't worry," the flier said. "We'll be right here with you no matter how long it takes. It won't be too much longer before you can hold your sparkling in your arms."

Dinobot, however, didn't seem to hear her. If anything, she looked even more filled with dread than she'd been a moment ago. "I don't want to do this," she said, her optics glazing with fear. "I don't want to do this anymore!"

"Cybertronians have been sparkbearing for thousands of millennia," Airazor said, her tone smooth and calming. "If they can do it then so can you."

"I said I didn't _want_ to do this anymore, not that I _couldn't_," the raptor corrected her. "Just because I don't want my self-respect tarnished by suffering such ignoble torture doesn't mean I am some helpless weakling that cannot endure what countless femmes before me have." Despite her exhaustion, Dinobot leveled her most poisonous glare at the well-meaning flier.

Rattrap smelled a confrontation brewing and decided to intervene before Dinobot took her fear, frustration and weariness out on the other femme in the form of anger. If at all possible, he wanted to see his sparkling come online without any bloodshed.

"Hey, give her a break, alright? She's just tryin' ta help."

Just as Rattrap hoped, Dinobot refocused her attention on him. "Do not dare tell me what to do, vermin, when this is your sparkling I am laboring to deliver. Be thankful I didn't terminate it when you left to go on Optimus's mission. Perhaps then I wouldn't feel as though my sparkchamber was being slowly ripped out of my chest or the tension cables in my back squeezed together in a vice. So far it's only been me that's had to suffer all the ill effects of this pregnancy, so don't dare for a moment think you have any right to tell me what to do to cope through it now." Although the warrioress's voice was as sharp as whetted steel, it was tinged with unmistakable traces of clawing weariness. The edges of her optics were rimmed with a fuzzy ring of static. Every inch of her façade literally screamed exhaustion.

Biting back a snappy retort, Rattrap stood from the edge of the berth and looked down at her. "Lie down," he said.

Dinobot seemed taken aback by the order. "Excuse me?" she snarled through narrowed optics.

"I said lie down on da berth. Back towards me. I ain't gonna let'chu say I never did anything fer ya."

The warrioress at first didn't move. But as she and Rattrap squared off in a short staring match, she finally swiveled around on the berth-mat with a great show of reluctance, drew her legs up off the floor and lay down as her lover directed. Rattrap retook his seat on the berth beside her hips.

Dinobot eyed him warily over her shoulder. "What are you planning to do?"

Rattrap scooted closer and carefully pressed his thumbs into the protomatter between Dinobot's shoulder blades. "Ya said yer back struts hurt, so I'm gonna do wha' any good mech would do an' rub da kinks out fer ya. Like ya said, it's my sparkling dat's hurtin' ya so it's my responsibility ta do something 'bout it."

The warrioress let out a startled exhale of air as the spy kneaded his fingers deep into the protomatter on either side of her spinal column and swept them outwards in a wide arch across her shoulder struts. He repeated the action. Almost immediately he felt the tension underneath his hands slacken and Dinobot relax under his touch. With a murmured groan of approval she arched back into his touch, urging him to continue. Rattrap willingly acquiesced. Over her shoulder he saw her shutter her optics as if to better enjoy this unanticipated offer of comfort.

As the spy continued to smooth the tension out of his lover's back cables, some of Dinobot's words came back to ring like ghostly echoes in the back of Rattrap's processor. Words that hadn't really struck him as surprising at the time because he'd sensed such feelings from his lover for some time now. With Dinobot relaxed and probably too tired to put up too much of a fight, now seemed like the best time to confront her about them.

"Before I left ya said something 'bout not wantin' dis sparkling…" Rattrap hesitantly broke the silence that'd settled over them. His fingers continued to knead her broad shoulders and back in slow, even passes. "Were you just mad 'bout me leavin' dat 'chu said dat, or were ya really bein' serious?"

Rattrap felt Dinobot tense underneath him. He dug his fingers deeper to ease away the strain before it could settle back into her tension cables. Over her shoulder he saw her unshudder he optics to look at him.

With a disgruntled sigh into the padding, Dinobot softly murmured her answer as though ashamed to actually admit it. "I was being truthful. I have no desire to become a maternal unit."

Rattrap's hands went still on her back. He stared at her profile in quiet shock. "Den why're ya still havin' dis sparking?" he asked, struggling to understand the raptor. "Why didn't ya terminate it?"

"Because you wanted it," Dinobot murmured into the padding. She refused to meet his gaze anymore. "I wanted to give you something that would make you happy. But in doing so I did nothing but make myself miserable. Unfortunately, by the time I realized that it was already too late for me to change my decision. My life was already over."

"What'cha mean yer life was over? Sure, a sparkling's gonna change some things, but dat doesn't mean it's over. Yer talkin' like ya've been given some kinda death sentence."

"Isn't that basically what I face? A slow and wasting death in a cage of domestication?" Dinobot spat with sudden venom. Her optics glared holes into the padding beside her cheek. "Why should I look forward to this sparkling when my personal freedom is to become forfeit as soon as it comes online. My entire existence is to become defined by this sparkling. I will never be my own bot again. I will always have the responsibility of caring and raising it hanging over my head. I will never be able to achieve my own personal ambitions with it hindering my freedom. As I said, my life is forfeit."

For a moment, Rattrap could only stare at Dinobot, his processor struggling to understand his lover's concerns. "Why ya actin' like yer gonna hafta take care of dis sparkling all by yerself. Is dat why you've been so negative 'bout dis whole thing? I'm still here, remember. Quickstrike's not _dat_ good ov' a shot. It's gonna be my kid too, ya know."

Dinobot finally looked away from the padding and glanced backwards over her shoulder. Her optics narrowed darkly and she gave a dismissive snort. "Throughout our race's entire history, it's always been femmes who are responsible for the raising of future generations. We are not expected to have hopes and aspirations of our own since those are the first things that must be given up to sparkrear. Males hold all the power, all the rights because they are not forced to make such sacrifices. The only right a femme truly has is the right to sacrifice everything she is or could have achieved for her mate and progeny's own prosperity. Once a femme gives birth she is expected to give up all of her own ambitions to raise it. All the responsibility rests solely on her shoulders. Tell me, rodent, is that a fate I should look forward to? Is that a fate you would wish for yourself?"

Rattrap stared at Dinobot, shocked. "No!" he exclaimed, appalled by the bleakness of her assumed future. "I'd never expect ya ta give up any of dat. Dis sparkling's mine too. It's gonna also be my responsibility. I'd never try ta make ya give up wha'cha like doin.'"

Dinobot gave a nasty snort. "You say that now, but when I recover and am able to return to active duty, will I actually be able to? Do you deny that I won't be expected to stay here at base and care for this sparkling even though I would rather be out in the field where my warrior skills would be of use? Do you deny that society doesn't dictate that it is the female's job to raise the young while the male does whatever he wants? Do you deny that I won't become slave to a helpless infant?"

"You don't hafta do anything ya don't wanna do!" Rattrap cried in mounting frustration. "I told'ja, ya don't hafta give up anything. I want dis sparkling. And I want us ta raise it together. But I don't expect ya ta give up anything dat'll make ya unhappy in da end. If you don't wanna be da main caretaker, den I'm not gonna try ta make ya. I'll take on all da responsibility fer it myself. I wanna make dis work fer us."

Dinobot stared at him, her expression unsure but tentatively hopeful. "You will?" she murmured as though wary to actual believe him. "I can still follow my warrior's code and live my own life without any expectations of domestication?"

"Of course, ya stupid saurian," Rattrap sighed, his voice exasperated but tinged with fondness. "I wan'cha ta be happy too. If dat means taking care ov' da kid while yer out slaggin' Preds, den dat's wha' I'll do. I wanna make dis work. I don't want dis sparkling ta destroy wha' we've got together."

Dinobot looked literally stunned speechless. Her optic were distant with a dazed expression as she settled back down against the berth. Unsure what to make of Dinobot's reaction, Rattrap tentatively took up massaging the warrioress's spinal column again. He worked for several minutes of silence before a shaky chuckle suddenly rumbled underneath his hands.

He glanced down over Dinobot's shoulder to see the raptor staring into the distance, her optics still bright with surprise. One corner of her lips were quirked in a ironic smile. "Such fools are those that expect the worst with only conjectures and assumptions to act as foundations for their fears," she murmured thoughtfully to herself. Rattrap looked at her questioningly, but Dinobot ignored him. Relaxing against the thick padding, the warrioress arched her back up into his hands. "Higher," she commanded like a general issuing orders to her troops. "And more pressure on the left."

Rattrap might have been imagining it, but as he worked his fingers deeper into the tight protomatter he thought he felt the last little bit of tension leave the raptor's frame and dissipate into nothingness. Whether that was because of his ministration or their talk he couldn't say for sure. All he knew was that he could sense a noticeably lighter aura around the warrioress as though some heavy burden had been lifted from her shoulders. Rattrap only hoped that this buoyed sense of hope was enough to see his lover through the rest of her labor.

* * *

_(17:07)_

Dinobot roared in pain as another realignment slammed through her like a hundred ton weight. Pain ripped through her chest, making her draw her limbs close to her body as though that might somehow lessen her agony. She lay in a huddled ball on the berth. She'd given up trying to sit up hours ago. Now thirty-two hours into labor she no longer had the strength to do anything more than lay there and scream whenever another internal shift struck. She didn't know how close together they came anymore. She'd given up keeping track. She was in too much pain to care about such trivial details but it felt like they were coming almost right on top of each other. In the midst of a realignment she barely even knew where she was or who was around her. All she could focus on was the tearing pain in her chest.

Several hours ago her labor pains had suddenly jumped to an all new level of agony. She'd tried to maintain her composure and dignity despite the continual waves of pain that assaulted her, but her energy reserves had sunk too low by then for her to try and keep her suffering internalized anymore. Since then she'd given up trying to save face. Humiliation stung her every time she was unable to stifle a scream or writhed on the berth in a convulsion of pain, but she was too tired to try and control herself anymore. All she cared about was surviving each new realignment until she could rest, even if only for a few minutes, and recoup the shattered remains of her strength before the next attack.

Rattrap sat close beside her on the berth, rubbing comforting circles against her shoulder whenever she felt she could stand his touch. Airazor and Rhinox bustled around her, but moved too quickly in and out of focus for her to keep track of. Her world had become nothing more than a blurry swirl of movement with herself trapped in the middle like the eye of some torturous whirlwind of pain.

Dinobot gasped and panted for air through gritted teeth. Condensation dripped down the sides of her face. Occasionally a damp rag was pressed against her forehead and neck, but such relief was only temporary. For as soon as the rag was removed she could feel the heat from her overworked internal parts rise to the surface once again. Although Airazor had convinced her to remove her armor for the duration of her labor, Dinobot still felt uncomfortably hot and weighted down to the berth. She was constantly thirsty, but no matter how much coolant she was given she never felt sated. A chalky, bitter taste coated the inside of her mouth. Her glossa felt swollen and lay like a dead animal at the bottom of her mouth. Her intake line felt like it was lined with steel wool it was so rough from hours of tortured screaming. Her lips were dry and cracked. Tiny drops of mech-fluid welled up along the edged of split protomatter. Rhinox had finally hooked her to a intra-circulatory line to help stave off dehydration, but as of yet Dinobot had not seen any noticeable improvement in her condition. He'd also attached a number of monitoring patches to her chest to keep track of her vital signs. The rhythmic beeps and chirps of their readings grated on Dinobot's sensor-net almost worse than the tearing sensation in her chest.

Another wave of pain coursed through Dinobot's torso, worse than the one before. She didn't even try to hold back her scream as she shuddered her optics and howled her suffering into the berth-mat. Her body stiffened sharply and shuddered. The warrioress held the edge of the berth with one hand, her fingers trembling with the power of her grip.

The pain was excruciating. She'd never felt anything like it before. It hit her so deeply and struck with such brutal swiftness she had no idea what to do against it except surrender herself to its humbling strength and pray that her torment ended soon. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. She was already nearing the end of her limits and the pain just coming.

_What monstrous deed have I done to deserve such humiliating torture?_ she wondered in agony as her internal parts continued to mercilessly shift and pull apart inside her. _What have I done to anger Primus so terribly?_

Exhausted, sleep-deprived and so wearied by pain she felt as though she were teetering on the brink of sanity, Dinobot wondered if she wasn't already dead and consigned to some hellish circle of the Pit where she was condemned to re-live the last few agonizing minutes of her life again and again and again for the rest of eternity. It didn't seem like such a farfetched possibility considering the length of time she'd already and still continued to suffer.

Despite the warrioress's panicked musing, the pain in her chest suddenly began to release its hold on her and fade away into the lingering ache above her sparkchamber. Gasping for intakes, Dinobot's went limp. Her hold on the side of the berth dropped away.

Almost instantly her attendants were leaning over her from all sides; wiping her brow, fiddling with the setting of the monitoring devices, rubbing the tightness in her back away.

"Ya still with us, Choppa'face?" Rattrap's voice drifted through the haze of disorientation clouding her processor. His voice seemed to come for the other end of a very long and narrow tunnel.

It took several moments of rapidly flickering her optics before Dinobot was finally able to focus on the small mech seated beside her on the berth. Rattrap leaned down low over her, his facial plates twisted with concern. Dinobot cleared her throat with a raspy cough. "I'm thirsty," was all she felt strong enough to say.

There was movement around her, and before too long Airazor handed Rattrap a small canister of bright blue coolant which the spy tipped against Dinobot's lips and held there as she desperately drank down the liquid. A coughing fit hit her when he removed the empty canister from her lips several minutes later.

"Whoa, take it easy der, Choppa'face," Rattrap said, lightly patting her back to help calm the spasm.

Dinobot winced when the coughing fit finally passed. The coolant she'd just drank sat like a cinder block in the bottom of her fuel tank. Nausea almost immediately assailed her. Her distress much have shown on her facial plates because Rhinox shot forward with a waste receptacle and held it near her face almost as if he'd been anticipating such a reaction. A violent gush of liquid came rushing out of her mouth into the waiting waste receptacle. Spasm after spasm constricted her fuel tank until Dinobot was finally emptied and lay shaking and dry-heaving on the berth.

Rhinox wordlessly set the coolant-splattered waste receptacle to the side. Turning back to Dinobot he looked into her optics and pressed the back side of his hand to her forehead. "The realignments are getting more powerful," he said as he continued his inspection. "Your body's too stressed right now to be able to handle large intakes of liquids or food. That's why you purged so violently."

Dinobot weakly blinked her optics, trying to make herself understand Rhinox. It was becoming more and more difficult as the hours progressed to interpret more complex thoughts or ideas. "I'm still thirsty," she rasped.

Rhinox shook his head. "You'll only purge again if we give you anymore. Once you deliver we can try giving you some. But for now, we're just going to make sure your fluid intakes are taken care of through the IC line."

Dinobot felt the last little bit of her self-restraint shatter at this proclamation. She was tired, sore and desperately thirsty. All she wanted was a simple drink of coolant. Was that too much to ask? Why did they have to torture her more by depriving her of the one thing that did anything to lessen her suffering?

"Please," she begged, pinning the engineer with a desperate look. She no longer cared what she looked like or how she sounded. Her pride was already shattered. What did it matter if she added a little bit more to her shame? "All I want is a drink of coolant."

"You're only going to make yourself sick again," Rhinox sighed, unmoved by her plea. "You'd only be doing yourself more harm in the long run doing that than if you waited until after you delivered and were able to hold down liquids again."

"Come on, big guy," Rattrap implored. He speared his friend with a pleading look. "Der's gotta be _somethin'_ ya can do. All she's askin' fer is some coolant. Wha 'bout just a lil' so she ain't dyin' of thirst?"

"She could try sucking on some ice crystals," the engineer said after a moment's thought. "I'm not sure how useful that'd be for her, but it's worth a try."

"I'll get them," Airazor said and disappeared from the room.

Sagging to the berth the warrioress let her exhaustion overtake her. She felt as though she could drift away into recharge at any moment. It literally hurt to try and think anymore she was so tired. Her entire body ached from tensing whenever a new realignment hit. She hurt so much she was seriously beginning to reconsider her stance on anesthetics. She didn't think she'd last much longer if this labor kept going the way it was.

"Ya okay, Lizard Lips?" Rattrap's voice drifted through Dinobot's daze.

"I'm still functional if that's what your question is," she tiredly murmured. Usually such a response would have been delivered with a growl and narrowed optics. But Dinobot just couldn't muster the strength to put any effort into her response. She was only speaking from rote.

Rattrap frowned and sidled closer to her. "Just hang in der," he said. "It's almost over. We gotta be gettin' close now." Dinobot wondered if her lover was really trying to reassure her or himself. The anxiety on the smaller Maximal's face wasn't difficult to see. It was bared for all the world to see. Dinobot was slightly unnerved to have such naked, sincere emotions directed towards her from her usually indifferent lover. It wasn't something she'd ever been on the receiving end of before joining the Maximal crew.

Perhaps it was her exhaustion, or the fear of what still awaited her before her ordeal could be over but the fearsome warrioress suddenly wanted nothing more than to draw her lover close. Reaching out she weakly snaked her arm around his narrow waist and tugged him towards her. The spy seemed only momentarily surprised by Dinobot's sudden desire for closeness before scooting closer so that he sat right beside her - his hip pressed against her stomach and his knee brushing the swollen mound of her chest. Draping his one arm over her side he rubbed his hand in slow concentric circles against her back. Dinobot allowed herself this quiet moment to bask in her lover's attention and leaned closer to him, greedily soaking in the warmth of his presence.

It was disturbing how much she'd come to depend on the barbwire-tongued spy to help see her through this. She wasn't sure she would have been able to make it this far if it hadn't been for him. He was arguably the only thing keeping her sane right now. She didn't know what she would have done if he hadn't returned, or worse, actually been killed. Unconsciously, the raptor gripped her lover closer.

"Ya must be in more pain dan I thought ta actually want ta cuddle," Rattrap teased with a watery smirk.

Dinobot, however, was too drained to respond in kind. "Just let me rest, vermin," she mumbled into the berth-mat. She no longer even had the strength to lift her head to meet her lover's gaze.

Rattrap said nothing else. He continued to rub calming patterns into her back and shoulders. Dinobot could feel herself slowly slipping closer to the edge of consciousness. It was only natural. She'd been awake for more than thirty-two hours and had suffered the worst kind of torture any living being could possibly endure without being deactivated. It was actually a miracle she hadn't succumbed to recharge yet. Soothed by her lover's presence and too exhausted to try and fight off the call of sleep anymore the warrioress let the encroaching darkness rise up to claim her and pull her down into its inky black depths of oblivion.

* * *

Rattrap felt Dinobot go limp against him. His hand stilled on her back. "Choppa'face?" he said, leaning down towards her. The warrioress didn't respond. It was then he noticed her optics were no longer online or even shuttered. They were disturbingly void of any awareness.

Swallowing back a small rush of panic, the spy spun around. "Rhinox!" he called, frantically motioning his friend over.

The engineer was almost instantly beside him. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"She's offline," Rattrap said, gesturing to Dinobot. "Make sure she's okay!"

Rhinox leaned closer and examined the screen of vital readouts above her berth. "It's alright. She's just recharging. Honestly, I'm surprised she's lasted this long without drifting offline. Don't try to wake her. She needs all the rest she can get."

But Rattrap wasn't about to be pacified. "Rhinox, ya gotta do somethin,'" he begged. "Choppa'face can't go on like dis much longer. Isn't der something ya can do ta hurry dis up?"

"I'm sorry, Rattrap, I can't. I'd probably only hurt her if I tried to do anything. We just have to wait." Heaving a heavy sigh, Rhinox glanced at Dinobot's vital signs again. "Her vitals are still in the safe zone, but they're starting to get low. If she doesn't deliver soon she might not be strong enough to push when the time finally comes."

"Wha' do we do if dat happens?" Rattrap worriedly demanded.

"If she's not strong enough to push I could perform an emergency surgery, but we don't really have the proper equipment to do that onboard. And with Dinobot as weak as she is I'd more than likely only end up killing both her and the sparkling."

Rattrap's spark sank. He suddenly felt queasy. His fuel tank constricted painfully in the middle of his stomach. This was all his fault. It was his fault Dinobot was like this. He was the one that got her pregnant and convinced her to continue the pregnancy. If she died giving birth it would be her death on his head. He didn't think he'd be able to live with that kind of guilt if that happened. He didn't know if he could go on without his lover if she died. He couldn't lose her. He couldn't!

"Rattrap," Rhinox said, urging the spy to look at him. His facial plates were drawn and serious. "I'm going to do everything in my power to help Dinobot and see that your sparkling comes online healthy. But I have to be honest with you, something might happen that I'll only be able to save one of them. I need to know what you want me to do if I have to make that decision."

Rattrap sat for a long moment of dazed silence. Everything was happening so fast. He felt like he was steadily losing whatever last little bit of control he had over the situation.

He solemnly looked up to meet his best friend's gaze. "Do wha'chu can fer da sparkling," he said, "but if ya hafta make a decision between da two of 'em save Dinobot. I can't lose her."

Rhinox nodded gravely. "Like I said I'll do everything I can to see both of them through this safely."

Unfortunately, neither mech was able to say anything more as Dinobot's optics suddenly flashed online and an agonized scream of pain exploded from her mouth. Instantly, she was clutching her chest and gasping for intakes. Her body contorted with pain against the padding of the berth. There was a new, more urgent pitch to her screams that Rattrap hadn't heard before now.

"Here, help me sit her up," Rhinox said, jumping into action. He brought up a new screen of vital readings on the monitor. A number of squiggly lines danced up and down across the screen. "Her biometric cycles are spiking. She might finally be ready to deliver."

Still dazed by the pace everything was suddenly happening, Rattrap did as Rhinox said and helped pull Dinobot upright off the berth so that she sat on the edge with her legs dangling over the side. She seemed unwilling or unable to sit upright by herself, however, and sagged heavily backward into Rattrap's arms.

"Let me go!" Dinobot screamed, her optics tightly shuttered against the pain. "Let me lay back down!"

"You've got to hang in there," Rhinox said, lowering himself to one knee on the floor in front of her. "You're almost near the end." Reaching up, the engineer began to undo the clasps to Dinobot's breastplate. The warrioress immediately tensed and tried to lean away from him, uncomfortable to be touched in such an intimate place by someone other than herself or her lover.

Rattrap held her as tightly as he could. He leaned down to whisper in her audio. "I know ya don't like anyone seein' ya without yer armor on, an' I know ya like it even less ta have yer chest plate taken off, but it has ta happen. It's da only way da sparkling can come out."

Whether Dinobot actually heard him through her pain or not, Rattrap didn't know. But with much reluctance, the warrioress relaxed and allowed Rhinox to undo the last clasp keeping her breastplate in place. A small gush of lubricants, oils and mech-fluid spilled out of her chest with its removal. A narrow pathway snaked back into her chest cavity all the way to her sparkchamber. The components on either side of the makeshift birth canal quivered with the effort of remaining tightly pulled back against the inner walls of Dinobot's chest. Dinobot's spark pulsed an ethereal blue and white inside her sparkchamber. Attached to the bottom of her sparkchamber was a silvery bundle of wires and membranous fibers.

It was exactly at this moment Airazor happened to return carrying a canister of ice chips. "Primus!" she exclaimed when she saw the warrioress and her bared internals.

"Hurry," Rhinox called. "I need several rags and a set of forceps. She's ready to deliver."

The flier jumped into action and ran for the cabinet on the other side of the room to get the requested supplies.

Rhinox turned back to the panting, frightened femme in front of him. "Alright, Dinobot, I need you to listen to me. Your body's done realigning itself. You have to do the rest yourself now. When I say 'go' I'm going to count backwards from ten and I want you to bear down as though your about to transform and push. Understand?"

Dinobot nodded, too weak and dazed with pain to argue or put up any kind of protest.

"We're going to do this with you sitting up," Rhinox explained as he took the set of rags Airazor handed him and wiped the excess fluids from the sides of Dinobot's chest. "Gravity will help assist the sparkling's passage. Rattrap, let her lean back against you. Airazor, stay next to me in case I need you. Once the sparkling's out I'm going to hand it to you to clean. Can you do that?"

"Of course," Airazor nodded, her expression focused.

Dinobot suddenly tensed against Rattrap, her entire body going stiff.

"Alright, push!" Rhinox yelled. "Ten… Nine… Eight…"

The warrioress leaned back hard against Rattrap, screaming between gritted teeth. The spy tensed and held her shoulders steady as she strained and pushed.

"… Three… Two… One. Alright, relax," Rhinox coached.

Dinobot gasped for air, her entire face flushed a dark cobalt blue. Condensation coated her entire body in a sticky film.

"You're doing well," Airazor praised.

Rattrap felt Dinobot tense once more and bear down even before Rhinox began counting.

"… Seven… Six… Five…"

"Count faster!" Dinobot snarled between ragged gasps of air. Shuddering her optics against the pain, she leaned forward and braced one hand against Rhinox's shoulder and screamed.

"…Two… One. Rest." Rhinox finished. Shifting his bulk to his other knee, Rhinox leaned closer to her. "The sparkling's almost out, Dinobot. Probably only one more big push and you're done. Are you ready?"

"Just get this over with," the warrioress gasped between labored intakes.

"Alright, ready. Go! Ten… Nine…"

Dinobot howled her agony to the ceiling. Rattrap's audios were momentarily filled with screeching backfeed from the sound. He could feel Dinobot's entire body trembling against him, straining to rid itself of its second protoform. He gripped her closer if only to reassure her he was still there.

"Come on, Choppa'face, yer doin' good."

"Shut up!" Dinobot screeched.

"…Seven… Six… Five…"

Dinobot grit her teeth and bared down with all her might. She felt a tremendous pressure pressing against the center of her chest. Her body violently trembled with strain.

"…Three… Two…"

She bore down hard, straining against the mass lodged between her chest's internal part. The pressure was almost unbearable. She felt like she was being ripped apart by it. But before it could overwhelm her she suddenly felt something slip from her chest into Rhinox's waiting hands.

Gasping for air she collapsed backwards against her lover. Rattrap scrambled to grab her before she could slip out of his grasp back to the berth and pulled her tightly up against his chest.

From between her legs, Dinobot heard a soft electronic warble issue from the thing in Rhinox's massive hands. Onlining her optics just enough to see she saw the sticky outline of a tiny blue protoform laying in his palm.

"It's a mech," Rhinox announced, passing the bundle over into Airazor's outstretched hands. As the flier spirited the fluid-covered sparkling to another berth to clean, Rhinox turned back to Dinobot and began mopping up the trails of umbilical fluid leaking from her chest and picking out the trailing wires and fluid lines that'd followed the sparkling out. Too weak to move or even lift her head Dinobot let Rhinox do as he will and struggled to regain control of her shaky body.

"It's over. It's all over now. Ya did good," Rattrap whispered into her audios.

"Shut up, vermin," Dinobot growled, but without any strength to her voice. Her optics tiredly shuttered. In the aftermath of her ordeal the warrioress felt almost numb, as though she'd just been shot full of anesthetics. Her chest still throbbed from birth, but the pain felt strangely dull compared to waves of tearing agony before. Unperturbed by her comment, Rattrap continued to hold her limp body close and rub one hand up and down her arm as though in reward for her hard work. Relaxing into her lover's embrace Dinobot let herself drift on the euphoric cloud of nothingness that suddenly seemed to envelope her.

Rhinox finally stood up from beside the berth. Gently taking her arm in one hand he motioned Rattrap out from behind her. Dinobot recognized the pang of disappointment that went through her as she was pulled away from the warmth of her lover's chest.

"Let's get her comfortable," Rhinox said. Together he and Rattrap helped Dinobot lay down properly on the berth. She limply let them prod and manipulate her into a reclining position against the headboard. She was too tired to try and do anything herself and lay there passive as Rhinox shook a thermal blanket out overtop her and tucked it down around her. Rattrap quickly reclaimed his spot on the berth beside her.

"How ya feelin'?" he anxiously questioned.

"Tired," Dinobot admitted.

Rattrap grinned down at her, his optics unnaturally tender. "Ya can sleep fer as long as ya want now. Ya've earned it."

Dinobot opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Rhinox and Airazor stepping forward with the now clean sparkling cradled in the flier's arms. Rattrap and Dinobot both looked up as Rhinox took the tiny protoform from Airazor and held it out for them to see.

The sparkling lay in a curled ball in the middle of Rhinox's palm, it's limbs still folded tight against its body in memory of its place beneath Dinobot's sparkchamber. Its protoform was a dark silvery blue. Its un-helmed cranial unit was patterned with a delicate network of intersecting circuits and neural lines. As the two stared in stunned silence, the sparkling squirmed and let out a warbled chirp.

_So tiny_, Dinobot thought, staring at the miniature creature. It was barely bigger than a data pad. How could something so small have caused her so much pain? If she wanted she could cup the sparkling in the palm of one hand.

"Do you want to hold him?" Rhinox asked, holding the sparkling out to Dinobot.

The warrioress froze, neither accepting nor refusing the tiny blue bundle. She stared at the infant like one staring down a dangerous predator, as though she expected the sparkling to suddenly leap up and attack her at any moment.

Out of the corner of her optic she saw Rattrap and Rhinox exchange a disappointed look.

"Here, Rattrap, why don't you hold him." Rhinox turned and held the infant out to him. The sparkling gave a plaintive chip and squirmed in his hand.

"Wait," Dinobot said, suddenly rattling herself out of her trance. Rattrap, Rhinox and Airazor all froze and looked at her. The warrioress continued to stare at the tiny blue protoform in Rhinox's hand. "Let me hold him…" she hesitantly demanded.

If the others were surprised by her sudden desire to hold her progeny, no one said anything. Very carefully Rhinox passed the sparkling into Dinobot's outstretched arms. Awkwardly, the warrioress settled the infant into the crux of one arm against her chest. He barely weighted a thing. Just her forearm eclipsed his diminutive frame he was so small. Dinobot sat uncomfortably stiff, unsure what to do and just a little bit afraid to suddenly be holding such a delicate creature in her arms. She worried if she jostled him too much she might somehow accidentally break him. The sparkling, however, seemed content and gave a sleepy warble as his body instinctively curled against the warmth of his mother's superstructure.

Dinobot quietly stared at him, her awkwardness gradually fading. Carefully, she resettled the sparkling in her arms and leaned back against the headboard of the berth.

"Ya okay?" Rattrap said, scooting closer.

Dinobot offered a distracted grunt of affirmation. Her attention was wholly focused on the tiny newspark in her arms. He was so small. So delicate. He didn't feel real, like he was really some kind of ingeniously crafted toy.

It was at that moment almost all the rest of Dinobot's unspoken fears concerning sparkrearing dissipated into nothing. She didn't know what the unconditional love she sometimes heard Maximals talking about was (she didn't know if such a thing really even existed), but she suddenly knew with a quiet certainty that she no longer begrudged this tiny sparkling's existence in her life. The situation was still far from optimal. She knew a long hard road still lay stretched out before her, but for the moment at least Dinobot didn't care. She would deal with the consequences of her and Rattrap's progeny later when a problem actually presented itself. For now all she wanted to do was rest and savor the weight of her son in her arms.

"You two going to be okay?" Rhinox asked, studying the two new parents.

"Yea, we're good," Rattrap murmured, his optics locked on Dinobot and the silvery blue protoform in her arms.

"Call me if you need anything," Rhinox said as he and Airazor began to back away. "I'll be cleaning up."

"Uh huh," Rattrap muttered distractedly. He didn't tear his optics away from his lover and son even for a second.

Rhinox glanced at Airazor as the two moved away to give the new family a moment of privacy. "Why don't you go rest. I can mange the clean up by myself."

"You sure?" the flier asked.

Rhinox nodded. "Yes. Go tell the others the good news. I know you're itching to tell someone." Airazor smiled guilty. Smiling tiredly himself, Rhinox directed her towards the door. "Go. I'll take care of these three." With only one more backwards glance at Dinobot and the sparkling, Airazor disappeared out the door.

Dinobot, meanwhile was too busy inspecting her son on the other side of the room to notice the flier's exit. With extreme care she ran her fingers up and down the sparkling's arms, legs, back and across the top of his head in search of any signs of deformity or sickness. She could detect nothing abnormal. Except for the sparkling's small size which she attributed to her lover's genetic influence, she could find nothing outwardly wrong with him. For all intents and purposes, he was perfect. The sparkling's protomatter was a dark shimmery blue with faint hints of dark stripes across his legs and arms. Pressing one finger to the bottom of her son's foot to inspect his toes, Dinobot was somewhat startled when a tiny claw no bigger than a rose thorn extended from the sparkling's instep under the pressure.

Dinobot and Rattrap both stared at it for a moment of incredulous silence.

"Great," Rattrap murmured after a suitable pause. "Looks like we have another saurian in da group."

"I didn't know alt-modes could be inherited," Dinobot said. As she removed her finger from the underside of her son's foot, the tiny raptor claw disappeared back into the hidden pocket on his foot. Returning her attention to the newspark's head she began her inspection again. "It would almost appear as though his beast-mode is directly integrated into his protoform…"

"Like I said, we got another saurian in da group," Rattrap reiterated. Moving slowly, the spy reached out and wiggled the tip of one finger into his son's fist. Five miniature claw-tipped fingers instantly curled around his own. "He's strong," he murmured in quiet awe. Staring at his son's scrunched face he glanced back up at Dinobot with a mischievous grin. "Ya know, he looks a lot like you."

"Don't start with that sentimental slag," Dinobot growled tiredly.

"So wha' re we gonna call him?"

Dinobot paused and thought for a long moment of silence. She hadn't given any thought to names before now. She'd spent so long refusing to acknowledge the existence of her progeny as a living, sentient being that she was at a total loss for what to name him. Pressing her finger to the underside of her son's foot, she watched as a tiny foot claw extended once more under the pressure.

"Switchblade," she announced with sudden inspiration. "It is a good name for a future warrior and one from my genetic line."

Rattrap considered it. "Switchblade," he repeated as if testing out the sound. "Hm, Switch fer short. I like it."

As though woken by his parents' voices, the sparkling groggily onlined his optics for the first time and stared up at them with milky innocence. His optics were a deep crimson hue, several shades darker than either Dinobot's or her lover's. The warrioress's spark clenched at the realization that they were the same shade of red as her own maternal unit.

_He really is mine,_ she thought with a sudden pang of possessiveness. _He is part of my family's genetic line._

Rattrap, however, was oblivious to their son's darker optics. He was too enthralled to pay much attention to anything else except the five tiny digits wrapped around his own.

"Can I hold him?" Rattrap's voice suddenly startled Dinobot out of her musings. With a surprising amount of reluctance she passed the sparkling into his father's arms. As the spy settled the infant against his chest, Dinobot reclined back against the berth. Exhaustion clawed at her processor, dragging her closer and closer to the cusp of unconsciousness. Soothed by the presence of her lover and her arms still tingling with the warmth of her newsparked son, the warrioress quietly watched as her lover bent down over the small figure in his arms. Even in Rattrap's arms the sparkling looked tiny.

"Hey, der, mini-mech," he greeted softly. "I'm yer dad." A goofy grin spread across his face. He gently bounced the sparkling in his arms, testing his weight. "Well, aren't you a tiny lil' thing. Kinda hard ta believe ya actually came out ov' yer mom. I was half-'specting her ta give birth ta a battle tank 'r somehin.'" The sparkling fussed sleepily in his arms. Rattrap gently moved him into a more comfortable position against his chest. Settling against the warmth of his father's chest, Switchblade's optics dimmed and within moments he drifted offline.

Rattrap sat for a moment staring at his son in enraptured awe. His son. He had a son. He was finally a father. The full magnitude of the fact was still a little too big for the spy to fully comprehend just yet. Just looking at his son's face was enough to make his processor sputter and stall with amazement. How was it possible he'd help create such a perfect creature? It just didn't seem possible. Suddenly everything else in Rattrap's life just didn't matter anymore when compared to this tiny slip of life in his arms. The pain in his shoulder, his clawing tiredness, the uncertainty of them ever returning to Cybertron, this crazy war they were caught up in. None of that mattered anymore as he stared at his son's squished face.

"Ya gotta admit he's a good-lookin' sparkling," Rattrap chuckled softly so as not to disturb the sleeping infant. "Must'ov gotten his good looks from me." With a teasing grin the spy glanced at his lover. Unfortunately, he got no response to his taunt because the warrioress had drifted off some time ago while he'd been holding Switchblade and was now deeply ensconced in sleep. Her chest rose and fell in a slow, hypnotic rhythm beneath the thermal blanket.

Unable to stop a tender smile from spreading across his face at the sight, Rattrap scooted closer to the top of the berth and leaned back against the headboard with his sleeping lover close beside him and his son cradled against his chest. It was in that single moment that Rattrap felt for the very first time in his life completely at peace with the world and felt a comforting tingle of hope for him, Dinobot and their tiny family…

Please review! (Any thoughts on the newest addition to the Maximal crew?)


	15. Recovery

Glad everyone seemed to like Switchblade!

**Chapter Fifteen: Recovery**

Airazor made her way through the Axalon's corridors on slightly unsteady pedes. She was exhausted. After spending the last thirty-six hours in med-bay assisting Rhinox it wasn't that big of a surprise. Just like the others who'd stayed up with Dinobot through her labor, she'd gotten no rest. Except for small sips of energon here and there between Dinobot's realignments she hadn't properly refueled in almost two days either. Tired, hungry and mentally exhausted, the female flier wanted nothing more than fall into her berth and recharge for the next several solar cycles.

But she couldn't just yet. She still had to tell the rest of the crew about the newest addition to their group. Airazor couldn't keep a tired grin from spreading across her facial plates at the thought. Dinobot and Rattrap's son was possibly the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. If there was ever a Primus-sent miracle it was him. He was so tiny, so perfect. It was almost difficult to believe he was actually real. She'd been completely mesmerized by his tiny frame as she'd untangled him from the fibrous, bio-metallic cocoon of his birth sack and wiped him clean of umbilical fluids. If she hadn't thought it was improper to cradle the sparkling before either of his creators saw or held him themselves she would have cuddled him to her breastplate and not let go. Although she'd never actually say it out loud, it was kind of hard to believe that such a delicate creature was the product of two such volatile, antagonistic bots. Dinobot and Rattrap were truly blessed. They couldn't have asked for a more perfect progeny.

The doorway to the bridge came into view. Airazor quickened her pace. She could barely contain her excitement of telling the others. Being near the end of the day, everyone was back from patrols and finished with whatever they'd occupied themselves with that day. Optimus, Cheetor, Silverbolt, Blackarachnia and Tigatron all looked up as she strode through the door, her facial plates radiant despite her tiredness.

"Airazor," Tigatron greeted, springing to his feet to meet her in the center of the control room. "You look exhausted."

The flier smiled tenderly at her lover's concern. "Not nearly as exhausted as Dinobot is, though."

"How is she? Is it over?" Optimus asked. He anxiously speared her with a worried look. His question was mirrored in the faces of everyone else. The worry for their comrade was almost palpable in the air.

"Yes, it's over," Airazor nodded. "Dinobot delivered just a few klicks ago. She's tired and probably not going to want to move for several days, but as long as there aren't any unforeseen complications she should recover quickly."

"And the sparkling?" Silverbolt said. "What about it?"

Airazor couldn't stop herself from breaking into a face-splitting grin. "A little mech. I don't know if they've named him yet, but he's beautiful. Looks just like Dinobot."

An audible sigh of relief went through the room. Without realizing how tense everyone had become worrying and waiting, the news of Dinobot's safe delivery was like an intake of fresh air after being trapped inside a stasis pod for several stellar cycles.

Optimus's shoulders sagged with relief. "So he's alright? We were all worried that because Dinobot went into labor so early that the sparkling might not be able to survive on its own."

Airazor shook her helm. "No. He's seems perfectly fine. He's very small, but all systems properly activated on their own and were running within normal specs when he came online. He has a strong spark pulse and was circulating air just fine from what I could tell."

"Thank Primus," Tigatron whispered, Airazor's smile spreading to him. "That is truly good news. We all feared for Dinobot and her child when she went to med-bay."

"Are Rattrap and Dinobot going to have the sparkling reformatted with an alt-mode?" Cheetor asked. "I know the sparkling will be protected by the ship's hull from any energon surges while he's onboard, but wouldn't it be a good idea to get him a beast mode as soon as possible?"

"First of all he's too young to even consider going through such an invasive procedure," Airazor pointed out. "The earliest I've ever heard of a newspark taking on an alt-mode was one stellar cycle old. They'd be crazy to reformat him until he was older or at least a little bigger; the ship's scanners probably wouldn't even be able to detect him right now he's so small. In any case, though, it's all a moot point. From what I could tell, it looks like the sparkling might already have the genetic sub-routes for a beast mode."

A ripple of incredulous excitement went through the bridge.

"You're kidding," Optimus said, his expression stunned.

"Please don't tell me it's some kind of fuzor," Blackarachnia sneered. "I can't imagine some kind of half-raptor, half-rat looking thing running around here."

Airazor shook her head. "Nothing so dramatic. He looks like any normal newspark, but he has faint stripes on his arms and legs. I also noticed that the protomatter on his fingers and toes were pointed, like they'll grow into claws. If I had to guess, I'd bet every credit I own that the sparkling's going to take after Dinobot's beast form when he's fitted with armor and has it formatted to his superstructure."

"I didn't think alt-modes could be inherited," Silverbolt said.

Airazor shrugged. "Apparently they can."

Optimus gave a low chuckle. "I'm sure Rattrap's just thrilled about that. I can only imagine how much he's going to complain about the sparkling taking after Dinobot."

"I didn't wait to see his reaction, but I honestly don't think he cares," Airazor smiled. "He's too busy right now playing the part of proud new sire to pay much attention to anything other than the fact that he has a son."

Optimus smiled. "If that's the case, then we should all be happy for Dinobot and Rattrap."

"This is truly a time for celebration," Tigatron agreed.

"When can we see the sparkling?" Cheetor asked. Childish eagerness danced across his face. Airazor wondered if part of his excitement didn't stem from the fact he could no longer be called the youngest crewmember of the Axalon.

"Probably not for awhile," Airazor replied. "Dinobot's in no shape to leave med-bay yet, and I doubt she'd going to let that sparkling out of her sight before then. She seemed a little hesitant around him at first, but I get the feeling she's going to become very protective of him."

Smiling tiredly now that her task was done, Airazor turned to Optimus. "If it's alright I'd like to retire for the evening now. I'm very tired from assisting Rhinox and would like to rest awhile."

"Of course, of course," Optimus said, motioning her towards the door. "Thank you for telling us the good news."

"I'll escort you to your rooms," Tigatron said, holding out his arm to her. Airazor gratefully accepted. Wrapping her arm around Tigatron's elbow the two scouts left the bridge. Airazor tiredly leaned against her lover's side as they navigated the Axalon's confusing maze of corridors and stairs.

"Are you alright?" Tigatron leaned down to murmur in her audio as they turned a corner and started down another hallway. "You must be absolutely exhausted. You were with Dinobot for so long."

"I felt it was important that I stayed there. Although Rhinox was the best qualified to oversee the deliver and probably didn't need me, it didn't feel right that there weren't any other femmes with Dinobot, especially after Blackarachnia left."

Tigatron chuckled under his intakes. "I think Blackarachnia was truly traumatized by what little she witnessed of sparkbearing."

Airazor laughed. "I don't doubt it. If there was ever a chance of her someday carrying a sparkling, I think that possibility's been completely squashed now."

"What about you?" Tigatron asked. Although his tone was light and teasing, the question was genuinely curious. "What are your feelings on sparkbearing now that you've seen another femme go through the process first hand? Have you been scared off as well?"

"No," Airazor replied without hesitation. "I admit, after seeing what Dinobot went through I do not find the idea of going through labor appealing. But, Tigatron, you should have seen that sparkling. He was so small and perfect. Just the thought of having a sparkling like that of my own would make all that pain and suffering worth it. Someday, after this war is over, I would like a sparkling of my own. I think I could be a good creator if I were given the chance."

"I think you would make an excellent creator," Tigatron whispered into her audio. Reaching across with his free hand, he ran his fingers tenderly down the side of Airazor's face. The flier looked up to meet his gaze. Love shined brightly in the Siberian tiger's optics. Airazor melted under his gaze, like snow under the noonday sun. "You are warm, caring and compassionate. A newspark could ask for no better maternal unit than you. Someday, when peace is restored to this planet, I too would like to think about the future and about bringing new life into this world."

"You would?" Airazor said, her spark suddenly fluttering against the inside of her chest.

"Yes," Tigatron answered. "And when that time comes I hope you will be the one to agree to carry my progeny and raise it with me as my sparkmate…"

Airazor did not feel she could have found the words to give a verbal answer even if she'd tried. Words seemed somehow inadequate to describe the overwhelming swell of love she felt for the soft-spoken scout she'd come to treasure as more than just a comrade or close friend. Although neither of them had ever spoken so openly about where their relationship might someday lead, especially faced with such uncertain futures in this time of war, Airazor knew with irrevocable certainty that Tigatron was her one and only true love. And to hear that he had the same hopes and aspirations as herself made Airazor's love for him swell even more if that were physically possible. Her tiredness suddenly forgotten, the flier dragged Tigatron to an abrupt halt in the middle of the hallway and gave him her answer in the form of a long and passionate kiss…

* * *

After hours of listening to Dinobot's agonized screams, the peaceful silence that had descended over med-bay was almost unnerving. Rhinox put his tools and equipment away with exaggerated care, not wanting to make any unnecessary sounds that might disturb the room's other occupants. Putting the last of his things away in the supply closet and closing the door, the engineer turned towards the only occupied berth on the other side of the room. Dinobot lay on her back in deep recharge with Rattrap sitting close beside her at the top of the berth, their sparkling cradled against his chest.

Rhinox was stuck by what a peaceful scene the three of them made. It was almost disconcerting to think that Dinobot and Rattrap - the two most antagonistic, polarized opposites of the crew - could have come together to create such a perfect nuclear family. If one didn't know any better looking at them, the two could have easily been mistaken for a real bonded couple. Even now, months after learning the true extent of his best friend's relationship with the ex-Predacon warrior, it still surprised Rhinox at times to think of the two of them together. They'd spent so long at each other's throat cables, bickering and fighting, how could anyone have foreseen them one day becoming so close that they sparked a new life between them? No matter what their past, though, Rhinox could not deny the worry and anxiety he'd seen on his best friend's face as he'd sat up with Dinobot throughout her labor. Despite however odd and mismatched a couple Dinobot and Rattrap made, Rhinox was forced to acknowledge the unspoken sea of emotions that seemed to connect the two of them. In spite of all their name-calling and meaningless squabbles, Rhinox now saw that all of that was really just a front to hide the true depths of their feelings for each other, perhaps even from each other at times.

Pushing these musing from his processor, the engineer quietly made his way over to the new family. As he approached the first thing he noticed was Dinobot. She lay stretched out on her back underneath the thermal sheet, her intakes slow and deep. For possibly the first time in all the time Rhinox had known her, Dinobot did not look like a fearsome warrior capable of dismembering another bot with her own two hands, but rather like an exhausted femme who'd just given birth. Even in her sleep she looked completely wrung out. Rhinox had a feeling it would be several days before she was back to normal and making threats of bodily harm towards anyone.

Perched on the side of the berth beside the sleeping warrioress, Rattrap only tore his optics away from the sparkling in his arms when Rhinox came within the last few feet of the berth.

"Hey, big green," he greeted in a low voice. A contented smile pulled at his facial plates as he gently repositioned the sparkling into the crux of one arm. "Wha's up?"

"Do you or Dinobot need anything? I'm finished cleaning and am going to go grab some energon and maybe a quick run through the wash rack. I'll be back to check in on Dinobot and the sparkling in a little bit, but do you want me to bring you anything in the meantime?"

"Naw," Rattrap shook his head. "Choppa'face's out, an' I'm good fer now."

"You should refuel and rest," Rhinox said. "You had an eventful day. Your little stunt of rushing here through that storm got you banged up pretty good. Not to mention the fact that you still need to get that shoulder repaired."

"I will later, but I'm happy right here fer now," Rattrap replied. "I don't think I could sleep right now even if I wanted ta." As though woken by his father's voice, the sparkling gave a murmured warble in his sleep and curled closer to Rattrap's chest. One miniature three-toed foot twitched gently against his chest as though the infant was caught in the midst of some vivid, interactive dream. The spy looked down at his progeny and grinned, his expression completely enthralled. "We named him Switchblade," he said without looking up from his son. "Looks like he's gonna take after Choppa'face in more ways den just looks."

"Really?" Rhinox humored him. He'd never seen Rattrap like this before - so quiet and tender towards another bot. Rattrap was openly besotted - something Rhinox never would have thought possible before now.

"He's already got claws," the spy said. "Even with all the good genetics he got from me, ya can still tell he's part Pred." Despite the seemingly offensive words, Rhinox could hear the affection and pride in his best friend's voice. Nor did he miss the way his friend cradled the tiny infant closer to him in an unconscious show of possessiveness.

"I'm sure he'll take after you more the older he gets," Rhinox indulged with a smile. "It's a good name in any case."

Rattrap just nodded, his optics locked on his son's tiny face as though nothing else in the world was more important right then than him.

It was at that exact moment that Rhinox felt something inside him shift. Ever since learning of Dinobot's pregnancy he'd had doubts about his friend and the warrioress raising a sparkling. Neither seemed suited for parenthood. But seeing the way Dinobot had taken the sparkling into her arms that first time and the way Rattrap cradled his son against his chest now as though he were some kind of delicately spun piece of glass, made almost all of Rhinox's misgivings fade away. In its place appeared a tiny flicker of hope that began to build and slowly expand inside him. In the midst of war with everything so unknown and fraught with danger, it was encouraging to have this tiny spark of new life amongst them. Rhinox had a feeling this sparkling would come to not only represent something special to both his creators but to the rest of the Maximal crew as well. His creation represented hope, life and (although he knew Dinobot and Rattrap would deny it unto their last dying spark-pulse) love.

Rhinox smiled, watching the way Rattrap cradled his progeny in his arms while his lover slept on near-comatose beside him. Despite all the odds stacked against them, perhaps things really would work out in the end…

* * *

Consciousness returned slowly to Dinobot. She didn't know how long she'd been offline but it felt like awhile by the achy stiffness in her joints. Although she was mentally aware of things around her, it took her body several klicks to catch up with her processor and disentangle itself from the grips of recharge. Groggily flickering her optics on, the warrioress forced herself awake. She must have made some kind of noise or done something else to betray her return to consciousness because a voice almost immediately rang out to greet her.

"Hey, Choppa'face, welcome back ta da land of da livin.'"

Dinobot turned her face to the side and saw a small figure leaning towards her from the side of the berth immediately beside hers. "Rodent?" she rasped. Her voice sounded like two sheets of sandpaper rubbing against each other in her audios.

The spy grinned. "Who else were ya 'spectin'? Megatron?"

It took a moment for Dinobot's neural circuits to clear themselves of the last little bit of sleep to reply. "Either of you would be a living nightmare, so I suppose it doesn't matter," she replied with a raspy grunt.

Rattrap smirked at her sarcasm. "Good ta see yer back ta normal. How ya feelin'?"

Dinobot did not immediately answer. Instead, she tried to push herself up to sit. She did not like the idea of conversing with another person if that person stood or say at a higher elevation than her. It made her feel inferior. When she tried to move, however, Dinobot was startled by how weak she was. Her arms trembled as she pulled them underneath her and tried to push herself up off the berth. An involuntary gasp of pain ripped from her mouth at the tearing sensation that shot across her chest with the movement. Wincing as she grit her teeth together against the pain the warrioress finally managed to push herself upright enough to lean back against the headboard of the berth. Her intakes came in quick, ragged spurts while she waited for the stinging soreness in her chest to dissipate.

"Hey, ya okay?" Rattrap demanded. He was leaning all the way across the small space separating the two berths towards her, his optics bright with concern.

"Besides still being tired and extremely sore from birth I will survive," Dinobot finally grumbled, rubbing at the center of her center with one hand. "Although a cube of energon and canister of coolant would greatly help speed my recovery," she added with a pointed look. In the corner of her visual readout several message boxes popped up warning her of low energy levels. Her fuel tank ached painfully in the bottom of her abdomen from emptiness.

"Yea, sure, here," Rattrap said. Rushing to the other side of med-bay he quickly returned carrying the requested nourishments. Dinobot wasted no time in snatching the energon cube from him and drinking it down in several hurried gulps. Without having to be asked, her lover immediately supplied her with a second. As she drained that one - this time a little less franticly - the warning signs on her visual readouts began to blink out one by one until her energy levels were once again stable. Setting the empty cubes aside, Dinobot took the proffered canister of coolant from Rattrap and sipped it. The bright blue fluid was cool and a welcome relief to her sore throat cables.

"Better?" Rattrap asked.

"Erm," Dinobot grunted and continued to sip her coolant. "It would appear my body's finally able to handle fluid intakes again." Leaning back against the headboard she made herself as comfortable as she could without aggravating her aching chest components. "How long have I been asleep?"

"'bout fourteen hours," Rattrap replied. "It's almost mid-afternoon."

"What?" Dinobot spat, staring at the spy incredulously. "How could I have been asleep that long?"

"Ya just had a sparkling after bein' awake fer almost two days. I'm surprised yer awake at all yet."

Dinobot sat for a moment digesting this. "Did you get any sleep?" she asked after a pause, careful to keep any traces of concern for her lover out of her voice.

"A lil," Rattrap shrugged. "I went an' got my shoulder repaired while ya were out. I didn't wanna leave you 'er Switch but Rhinox kinda threatened ta hurt me more if I didn't get into da nearest CR chamber fer repairs."

Suddenly realizing something, Dinobot glanced around. "Where's the sparkling?" she demanded, an involuntary swell of panic rising in her throat. "Where's Switchblade?" She began to push herself off the berth.

"Whoa, whoa, cool it, Bronto-brain," the spy calmed. "He's right here." Turning around, Rattrap reached behind him and carefully extricated their son's tiny form from the middle of a nest of thermal sheets she hadn't noticed before now on the other berth. "Here," he said, holding the infant out to her.

Before Dinobot could protest she suddenly found her arms filled with the sleeping newspark. She tried to arrange the tiny body comfortably against her chest, but wasn't fast enough. Woken by the sudden shift of positions, the sparkling squirmed uncomfortably in Dinobot's arms and released a series of agitated chirps. Dinobot tensed, her instincts screaming at her to release the infant and run before his chirps could become full fled cries of distress. Before panic could overwhelm her, though, Switchblade seemed to finally find a comfortable spot in her arms and settled against the warmth of the warrioress's chest with a content electronic burble. Dinobot sat uncomfortably tense, her son held stiffly in her arms. She waited with bated intake, fearful the infant would stir at any moment and cry again. After several klicks though when it became apparent Switch had drifted into deeper recharge, the raptor finally allowed herself to relax.

"Ya shouldn't sit so tense with him," Rattrap said. "Rhinox told me sparklings can sense when something's wrong with their caretakers an' dat makes 'em antsy. Just relax an' he'll fall right ta sleep in yer arms."

"Forgive me, Vermin, if I am not used to being around infants," Dinobot snarled in a hushed voice so as not to disturb her son. "Before sparkbearing I've never even held a sparkling in my arms before. This is completely new territory for me."

"Den we're both in da same boat," Rattrap replied. "I've got just as much experience as you in dis department."

"But you hold him so naturally," Dinobot murmured, dropping her gaze from Rattrap. She did not like admitting her shortcomings, especially when her skills fell so short of her lover's own.

The spy shrugged. "Eh, just takes practice 's all."

With awkward care, the warrioress repositioned Switchblade in the crux of her arm and leaned back against the headboard, studying the squished contours of his face. Rattrap moved to sit beside her on the berth.

"I already fed Switch 'bout an hour ago, so we shouldn' need ta worry 'bout dat fer awhile," the spy said. "I was talkin' ta Rhinox before while ya were still asleep an' he said ya should be able ta feed him yerself with feed lines if ya wanted ta. 'pparently femmes can do dat… Anyway, ya were still sleepin' an' I didn' think dat was something ya were really gonna wanna do, so-"

'You were correct, Vermin," Dinobot cut him off. "I have no intention of being leeched off of like some kind of living feed sack. Switchblade will be fed with energon cubes, not feed lines."

"Hey, it's yer decision. Yer da femme," Rattrap conceded, holding his hands up in front of his chest as if in surrender. "I'm not gonna try ta make ya do anythin' ya don't wanna."

Dinobot slowly calmed and relaxed back against the headboard. For as much as she'd come to accept the idea of her son's existence in her life, she was still unwilling to surrender herself in such a personal way to the infant. It was bad enough her body had betrayed her by being able to naturally provide nourishment to any offspring she produced, but that didn't mean she had to actually submit to such carnal degradation. Her own maternal unit hadn't done so, so neither would she. The older matriarch had always been fiercely independent - a trait her father had accused her of inheriting more times than Dinobot could count when she was younger.

"Wha'cha thinking' 'bout?" Rattrap's voice broke through Dinobot's nostalgia. It was only then Dinobot realized she'd been staring at Switchblade with what she was sure was a faraway look on her face.

"About my own maternal unit," the warrioress admitted softly. "Switchblade has the same colored optics as her."

"Wha'? Really?" Rattrap squeaked. "I just thought dey were darker 'cause he just came online. Ya know, like dey were gonna get lighter da older he got."

"No," Dinobot shook her head. "They're the same color as hers."

Rattrap seemed momentarily speechless, but then curiously asked, "Were you carried too?"

Dinobot nodded. "Of course. Most Predacons are. Very few are able to afford the high fees Maximals puts on government gestation facilities for Predacon creators. I suspect they do it to dissuade Predacons from reproducing. Since mechs are not naturally suited for sparkbearing, femmes are expected to carry progeny to full term. Unfortunately, since many fem-sparks are terminated before birth in favor of male offspring there are not as many femmes in the population as there should be that could sparkbear, thus Predacon populations remain low in many places across the planet. It is a vicious cycle that does not appear likely to change anytime soon…"

"I didn't know dat," Rattrap murmured.

The warrioress snorted under her breath. "That doesn't surprise me. Most Maximals don't know what's going on in the government even half of the time."

Rattrap leaned closer, his expression intrigued. "Wha's yer family like? Tell me 'bout 'em."

"Why? Why do you care?" Dinobot demanded, instinctively suspicious of his curiosity.

"Because my kid's half Pred," Rattrap replied. "I'd like ta know a little bit more 'bout you an' where yer side of his genetics come from. Is dat a crime?"

Dinobot hesitated. She did not like the idea of talking about her past or family. Much of it was not pleasant. But the vermin raised a valid point and she felt she owed it to him as the sire of her sparkling to give him some sort of family history. Heaving a disgruntled sigh of defeat, Dinobot shifted Switchblade into the crux of her other arm and began.

"My father's name was Stahlhand, commander of the northern Predacon army's seventh infantry division. He left the military shortly after I was born to support my family through factory work in the manufacturing district. It was demeaning labor for such a proud warrior. It shamed my father to leave the military but it was the only way my family was able to survive the Great Energon Shortage of 3851. Because he was the commander of a smaller division with no male heirs as his successor, our family unit's rations from the military were halved in favor of supplying higher-ranking officers with more. We almost starved. If my father hadn't taken that job in the factories I don't know what would have happened. My father's sacrifice saved us but it brought my family dishonor at the same time. After leaving the military, my father had no hope of ever being able to reenlist again.

"My mother, Tripwire, was also in the military. She worked in the espionage division as a subversive security installations specialist."

"So… she was a booby trap expert," Rattrap reiterated.

Dinobot sneered. "To put so crude a title on it, yes. She met my father through the military, but once they were sparkbound she had to retire."

"Why?"

"Because it's normal military regulation. A female can enlist and fight, but as soon as she is sparkbound she is required to leave."

Rattrap shook his head. "Dat doesn't sound fair."

"It's not," Dinobot spat, "but unfortunately that is the way of the world, at least within Predacon society. My mother continued to freelance in the private sector whenever she could find work. But many do not want to hire females no matter how great their skills, so income usually only came in from my father. Needless to say my family was not wealthy growing up…"

"Dat's incredible," Rattrap murmured, his expression stunned. "So how did you ever end up makin' yerself look like a mech an' joinin' ol' Grapeface an' his merry band of misfits?"

Dinobot sighed under the weight of unwanted memories. "From an early age my father taught me to live by the warrior's code. Even though I was female, I was his only offspring and he took it upon himself to pass on his knowledge of fighting to me. I desperately yearned to join the military to regain my family's honor, but my father forbade me from enlisting. Since females are seen as little more than property of their sires, sparkmates, or closest male relative, written consent by a mech must be given in order for a femme to join. I was furious, but my father would not relent. There was a large fight. Many hurtful words were exchanged before I finally just left and never returned. It was not long after that that I developed the idea of reformatting my superstructure to look like a mech's to free myself of the unfair regulations put upon those of my gender.

"Unfortunately, even then I could not join the military as I wished. My disguise never would have fooled a trained medic in an examination. Nor could my activation codes be changed to match my new identity. Instead I took on odd mercenary jobs and honed my skills in the underground gladiatorial rings until I happened to meet Megatron and signed onto his crew. The rest after that you already know…"

Rattrap stared at her, almost as if he didn't know what to think. "Wow," he breathed.

Dinobot challengingly met his gaze. "What about you, rodent? What of your family?"

"Not much ta really tell," he said. "Only family I really have is my great-aunt Arcee. We're not close though. In fact, I think she's happier when she doesn't hear from me fer a long time."

"What of your creators?"

"Dead," the spy replied without even an emotional pause. "Dey were both killed in an accident while I was still growin' in a gestation facility. Never knew 'em. My aunt took me in when I came online, but since we never really got along I kinda just floated from place ta place. I pretty much grew up on da government's dime before hookin' up with a shippin' company when I got old enough ta work. Dat's where I first met Rhinox, in fact."

"I never knew," Dinobot said.

Rattrap shrugged indifferently then grew quiet, staring thoughtfully at Switchblade in Dinobot's arms. "Ya know, once we get off dis spinning ball of dirt an' back ta Cybertron we should hunt down our families. Even if neither ov' us 're close with 'em dat doesn't mean we shouldn't introduce Switch ta 'em. He's gonna need relatives, even estranged ones."

Dinobot did not immediately answer. She wasn't sure how she felt about such an idea. "My creators more than likely believe I am dead, and in some ways I do not know if I want to change that. I have not spoken to either of them since that fight with my father. Not only did I go against my father's wishes, I'm not sure if my mother would approve of what's become of me since."

"Ya mean you becomin' a Maximal?"

"That and also the fact that I am an unbound maternal unit to a sparkling that was conceived during a drunken night of debauchery. Do you realize I revealed myself as a femme only several months before I was so ingloriously impregnated? That is not something that I think would bring honor to my family if I were to return. I would more than likely only bring shame on them."

Rattrap winced, but did not argue with her. "Speakin' of ya bein' a Maximal now," he carefully said, "Rhinox wanted me ta ask ya 'bout Switch's activation codes. Wha' kind 're we gonna give him?"

"Maximals codes, of course," Dinobot snapped. "I will not have my son sentenced to the dregs of Cybertronian society by giving him Predacon codes. He will be persecuted enough because of his Predacon heritage, but I will not compound his misery by outwardly labeling him as one. Predacon and Maximal offspring are uncommon, so if great care is taken he might not have to suffer the same social prejudices I did."

"Dat's wha' I thought ya were gonna say, but I wanted ta make sure before I let Rhinox do anything." Sighing despondently, Rattrap reached out and gently stroked the back of their son's head. Switchblade gave a sleepy warble and huddled closer to Dinobot, his hands curled into two tiny fists beneath his chin. "'Though it's not gonna matter much if he's half-Pred or not on dis planet. No one here on da crew cares, but once we get back home ya just know some people're gonna make a big deal outta it…"

Dinobot said nothing, her thoughts despondent and dark. It was true what the vermin said. Switchblade would face many hardships when they returned to their home planet. No matter how blurred the lines of Predacons and Maximals had become here on primitive Earth, she knew the division lines were still fiercely kept back on Cybertron. Maximals and Predacons did not intermix. Ever. As far as Dinobot knew, she had never heard of a relationship like hers and Rattrap's before. Switchblade was destined to be part of both Predacon and Maximal society but never fully accepted in either. In some ways it was a cruel fate tshe'd sentenced him to simply because she'd come to care for a member of the former enemy. Even though she herself was a Maximal now, many would never accept her the same way they would never accept Switchblade simply because they were of Predacon heritage. It was unfair, but something Dinobot did not know how to combat. She herself had been fighting against it unsuccessfully for as long as she'd been alive.

But what weighed heaviest on her spark was not the knowledge that her son would someday have to face such prejudice, but that he would have to do so alone without her there beside him. Despite everything that'd happened - her relationship with the rat, her son's birth, the ease of which she'd accepted Switchblade into her life - Dinobot was still determined to earn a warrior's death. Just as she'd explained to the Maximals before their failed attempt to leave the planet more than a year ago, she had no intention of ever returning to their home planet. Cybertron was buried in her past and she intended to keep it like that. She would fight to see that her lover and son made it back alive, but she knew that she would not be going with them. The redemption of her family's honor resided here on this primitive planet in her own death. It was her destiny.

Oblivious to Dinobot's plans, the spy leaned back from Switchblade to look at her. "Rhinox was sayin' dat da others were askin' 'bout Switch. Dey were wonderin' if dey can come see him."

"No," Dinobot said, shaking her head. "I want no visitors while I am confined to med-bay. I will recover and present Switchblade to the crew on my own two pedes, not as a bed-ridden invalid."

"Okay, fine. Wha'ever ya want," Rattrap agreed. Leaning back down over their son he gently toyed with their son's foot. Switchblade's miniature raptor claw extended and retracted in response to his father's manipulations.

"Stop it," Dinobot hissed. "If he wakes up and begins to fuss it will be _you_ who will have to deal with his cries."

"Not if I make a mad dash fer da door an' leave him here with you," Rattrap said with a cheeky grin.

Dinobot shot him a withering glare that would have smelt iron if it were physically possible.

With a chuckle, the spy relinquished his torment on the infant and looked up to stare deep into Dinobot's optics. "We'll make dis work," he murmured, his voice low and solemn as though swearing a promise. "I know I'm usually da pessimist of da group, but I got a good feelin' 'bout dis. I know it'll be rough at time, but we can do dis if we stick together."

Dinobot could not bear the look of hopeful confidence in her lover's optics and dropped her gaze down to her son. Unconsciously, she clutched Switchblade closer, suddenly desperate to memorize the warmth and weight of his tiny body in her arms. If only things could be as simple and rosy pink as the vermin wished to believe, she thought with a stab of wistful yearning. If only happy endings really could come true. But, alas, such fantasies, she knew, never really happened outside of books or fairy tales…

And here is where we finally veer back towards the true plot of this story. More on that next chapter. Any thoughts on Dinobot and Rattrap's family history? Anything I forgot to explain, or you want me to explain?

Please review!


	16. Welcomes

**Chapter Sixteen: Welcomes**

Beneath the leafy canopy of the jungle, the air was thick and suffocatingly close. The light was murky, an almost greenish gray color. The chatter of birds and random calls of other organic wildlife echoed through the dense maze of trees and planets in such a way that it was impossible to accurately pinpoint where the sounds were coming from. It was extremely humid. Moisture from the thunderstorm that had devastated much of the surrounding landscape the day before had yet to evaporate or be properly absorbed into the ground. Pools of stagnant water sat here and there across the ground. Everything was wet. Just bumping into a tree or brushing past a large plant managed to cause a small shower of rainwater to come cascading down and soak any unfortunate bot below.

Talon scowled as she crashed through the jungle's underbrush. Her entire superstructure was soaked. Mud coated her legs all the way up to her knees. She didn't want to think about what kind of organic filth was slowly working its way deep into her leg joints. Using her finger blades like machetes the transmetal raptor managed to hack a path through the dense undergrowth. A thick knot of vines appeared in front of her. With a vicious swipe of her claws Talon sent them falling to the jungle floor in a slew of severed pieces.

"It must be around here," a voice growled not far away from her. Talon glanced up as Megatron appeared out of the humid mist that seemed to cover the land in a ghostly shroud. "It couldn't have possibly fallen any farther into the interior."

"Perhaps we should double-back and start our search again," Inferno suggested from Megatron's other side. The fuzor, Quickstrike, completed the Predacon search party.

"No," Talon sneered, batting aside another vine out of her path. "It had to have fallen farther. If it had crashed any closer to the edge of the jungle the Maximals would have found it."

"How do we know 'ey haven't?" Quickstrike drawled. The eyes of his serpent head glowed eerily in the murky gloom.

"I doubt it," Megatron growled. "We detected Maximal energy signatures in this sector shortly after receiving that stasis pod's emergency signal, but we didn't detect any additional energy signature leave with them. The pod must still be here. Terrorsaur said he detected another brief emergency signal just a few days ago and pinpointed it to this particular area before losing it again." Gritting his dentals together in open frustration, the Predacon warlord lashed out and slammed his fist into the nearest tree. A small cascade of rainwater showered the ground around him. "I want that stasis pod found!" he roared into the steamy jungle. High above them in the canopy Talon heard a flock of exotic birds fly take flight and fly away squawking fearfully.

"My Lord," Talon said, sidling closer to him. Pressing herself against him, she wound her arms around his one elbow and leaned up to whisper soothingly in his audio. "All is not lost. We are certain the Maximals have not recovered the stasis pod yet, nor have they made any other attempts to retrieve it. More than likely they have written it off as lost. It is ours for the taking. All we need to do is find it."

Against all odds, Megatron frustrated anger slowly bled away from his facial plates into calm thoughtfulness. "You are correct," he rumbled. Reaching across with his free hand he stroked the length of Talon's arm which was wrapped around his own. "If Primal has given up trying to locate it then there is no dire rush to find it before those annoying Maximals. We've already been searching on and off for more than a month now. We can afford to look a little bit longer." The fingers stoking Talon's arm were transferred to her face where they possessively caressed her cheek.

Talon leaned into the warlord's touch, drinking in his attention. Ever since that night that she demanded Megatron acknowledge her as Dinobot's equal she had become Megatron's mistress. It was common knowledge amongst the crew. Neither she nor Megatron had made any attempt to keep the fact that they were berthmates secret. In fact, Talon had made it a point that all the other Predacons knew of their relationship and treated her with the respect due Megatron's consort. No one had dared make any verbal protests against her. Despite her gender, her rise through the ranks to Megatron's unspoken second-in-command had come about surprisingly easy. With Megatron's affection no longer directed towards her hated rival and instead lavished upon herself, Talon held unprecedented sway over the rest of the crew. Anything she said was automatically treated as an order from Megatron himself. No one dared argue with her. And not for fear of retribution from Megatron but from Talon herself. She hadn't earned her place by his side for her feminine charms or grace. She had captured Megatron's attention with her warrior skills and ruthless brutality. She was the warlord's favorite now, and it was an unspoken fact that anything she did to assert her authority over the rest of the crew would not be reprimanded by Megatron. Together, the two of them ran the Darksyde with iron fists…

With her lover close beside her, Talon turned back to the thick tangle of jungle, prepared to attack it once again. For the next two deca-cycles the four Predacons forced their way deeper into the tropical forest until Inferno's voice suddenly rang out through the humid air.

"My Queen! Royalty!" he called, hurrying towards Talon and Megatron and snapping off a formal salute to each of them in turn.

Talon inwardly smirked. Despite her initial dislike for the fire ant, he'd quickly proven himself a loyal subject. Although he still took orders from Megatron and carried them out faithfully, his true loyalties were now with Talon. As the female leader of their faction, in Inferno's processor at least that made her undisputed ruler. She was his Queen, especially now that she was the warlord's mistress. Her orders now outweighed Megatron's. It was just lucky for Megatron that Talon's own loyalties lay immutably with him. If ever there was a schism amongst them, there was no doubt in Talon's mind that Inferno would side with her before he ever did Megatron. Fortunately, such a division would probably never happen. She was Megatron's and viciously guarded her place as his mistress. Nothing less than death itself would tear her from his side now.

"What is it?" Megatron demanded.

Inferno turned and pointed ahead into the gloomy darkness. "I just detected a faint energy signature on my scanners, Royalty. Coming from that direction."

Talon and Megatron both followed his line of sight. After a few hundred yards, the ground began to slope downwards at a steep angle, dropping sharply out of sight. With claws, blades and short bursts of laser fire the Predacon search party cut its way through the underbrush in that direction. Within minutes they reached the top of where the ground began to slope into a shadowy, narrow gully.

A thick wall of trees encircled the gully, creating a small clearing. On the far side of the clearing a large section of trees had been felled, some of them torn up at their very roots. Their shattered remains lay in pieces across the ground. At first glance, one might have attributed such destruction to the thunderstorm that had unleashed it fury on the earth just the day before. But on closer examination, one would have seen that the damage was old - at least a couple of weeks - and the damage concentrated to only that one side of the gully. Upon even closer inspection it would have also been noted that those trees on the edge of the clearing were not the only vegetation to suffer. Trailing backwards deeper into the jungle ran a perfect line of downed trees as though something large and powerful had come through and cleaved a path of destruction.

In the middle of the clearing lay a battered stasis pod, its hull charred black from its passage through the planet's atmosphere. The broken remains of a massive tree limb lay across the top of the stasis pod, pinning it to the ground. Despite the remnants of the pod's violent crash landing - scattered wood shards, wilting leaves, and splattered mud - that covered the pod in a thick coat of muck Talon was still able to make out a giant red X painted across the stasis pod's hatch.

Talon's lips twisted into an unbidden smirk. Finally. They'd found what they'd been searching for…

* * *

Dinobot moved slowly, her footsteps light and careful. Despite two days in med-bay recovering from childbirth her chest was still tender and stung whenever she moved too quickly. Just walking made her realigned chest components twinge from the vibrations of her footsteps. She forced herself to ignore the soreness though. She refused to let any outward signs of discomfort show. She'd already spent two days of self-imposed isolation recouping her strength, and now felt that she'd spent more than enough time convalescing. It was time to retake her place amongst the rest of the crew.

Rattrap walked beside her, keeping easy pace with her long slow strides. He walked unnervingly close - his one shoulder rim almost brushing her arm. Under normal circumstances Dinobot would have snapped at him to back off and give her her space. But she knew what it was making her lover hover so close to her and, for once, chose to forgive the spy's annoying proclivity for physical closeness. In her arms she cradled their infant son against her chest. Switchblade was deep in recharge. Dinobot could feel the slow heavy pulse of his spark against her breastplate. His intakes puffed gently against her superstructure, his small body curled into the bend of her elbow. Even though Dinobot still had moments of awkward panic whenever Switchblade fussed or chirped agitatedly for fuel, attention or something else, she was startled at times by how acclimated she'd become to his presence. She could have easily passed the sparkling to Rattrap to carry before leaving med-bay, but instead she'd shaken her head at his offer to do so and chosen to carry him herself.

_You're growing weak_, a voice hissed in the back of his processor. _You are becoming too attached to both the rat and child. Such emotional ties are unbecoming of a warrior._

But the raptor chose to ignore the voice, at least for the time being.

"Ya sure ya don't want me ta hold Switch fer ya?" Rattrap's voice shook Dinobot out of her thoughts.

"I'm fine, Rodent. I do not think holding him would be good for your shoulder anyway. I noticed it paining you earlier this morning."

Wincing, the spy reached up and massaged underneath the wheel rim of his right shoulder. "Eh, it's not that bad ta-day. Just a lil achy, 's all. Rhinox said a cold front's movin' in. I think it's 'cause of dat my shoulder's actin' up."

Dinobot let no emotions show on her facial plates, but inwardly she frowned with concern. Despite the spy's stay in the CR chamber to repair his laser wound, it appeared he'd waited too long for repairs. Several neural lines in his right shoulder had been permanently damaged. Whether that damage had been caused by Rattrap's frantic journey through the storm or his stubborn refusal to seek repairs until after she'd delivered, the warrioress didn't know. Whatever the cause, nothing less than minor surgery would repair the damage to her lover's neural lines and sensor nodes now. Several times now she'd caught the spy holding his arm stiffly as though his shoulder was causing him noticeable discomfort. In beast-mode, Dinobot had no doubt Rattrap would walk with a slight limp.

"I can't wait ta show off Switch to da rest of da crew," the spy grinned, proudly glancing at the tiny bundle in Dinobot's arms. "Ain't nobody gonna be able ta say we didn't make a good lookin' kid."

Dinobot snorted. "As long as they accept him into the crew I don't care what their opinions of his appearance are."

"Aw, com'on," Rattrap said. "Ya can't tell me ya don't think he's cute."

"Those of Predacon descent are not valued for their cuteness," Dinobot sneered. "Predacon sparklings are bred for their strength and potential to become soldiers."

"So ya don't think Switch's cute?" Rattrap said, one optical ridge raised in a skeptical arch.

Dinobot glanced at the sleeping infant in her arms. "I admit he does have the proportions and rounded features many Maximals would consider _cute_," she reluctantly agreed with a slight sneer. "But there is no way he inherited such features from me. I attribute those qualities solely to your genetic influence."

Rattrap smirked devilishly. "I dunno… He looks an awful lot like you. I bet ya looked just like Switch when you were a sparkling. Bet ya were da cutest lil' Predacon femme in yer sector growin' up."

An embarrassed rush of mech-fluid colored Dinobot's cheeks. "I was no such thing," she spat, perhaps a bit too vehemently. "As I've already informed you, Predacon sparklings are not bred for their appearance."

"Yea, yea, wha'eva," Rattrap chuckled, sidling closer to Dinobot. Sneaking one hand out he ran his palm down her spinal column and across her aft.

"Stop it," Dinobot snapped and sent her lover a scathing glare. "We're almost to the bridge. Just because I bore you a sparkling and everyone is now fully aware of the kind of relationship we share doesn't mean I will allow you to fondle my superstructure so vulgarly in a public hallway."

"Does dat mean I can still fondle it in private?" the spy asked with a lascivious grin. "I haven't had much chance to da last couple weeks…"

Dinobot didn't deem such a question worthy of response and brusquely stormed ahead out of Rattrap's grasp. He was lucky her arms were full with their son or she more than likely would have lashed out and stuck him. Rattrap had to jog half a dozen feet to catch up with her. He was chuckling merrily under his breath as he fell back into step beside her.

Within moments the end of the corridor came into view. As Dinobot neared she could hear the sound of muffled voices coming through the doorway. It sounded like the rest of the Maximals were assembled in the control room just as she'd demanded they be when she'd comm-ed the bridge to tell them she was ready to formally present the sparkling to the rest of the crew.

When she and Rattrap walked through the doorway into the room all chatter immediately ceased as seven sets of optics all turned to stare at them and the miniature blue bundle in Dinobot's arms.

"Hey guys!" Cheetor called out in greeting.

Before Dinobot knew what was happening she and her lover were suddenly surrounded by the rest of their crewmates, all of them excitedly jockeying for position to better see the sparkling in her arms.

Rhinox pushed his way to her side. "Here, sit," he demanded without any preamble, steering her towards an empty monitor chair and firmly pushing her down into it. "I still say it's too early for you to be up like this. But since you're not going to listen to me no matter what I say, you're at least going to at least sit down while you're here."

Dinobot shot the pseudo-medic a bitter glare out of the corner of her eye. Rhinox returned it without a flinch. Even though she'd delivered almost three days ago with both her and Switchblade receiving clean bills of health, the engineer still insisted on acting as their medic. Although Dinobot would have liked to snap off a sharp comment about no longer needing his services, she bit her glossa. Despite all outward shows of appearance, she felt disturbingly drained by her short trip from med-bay up to the bridge. Although she'd never admit to it even under pain of torture Dinobot was silently grateful for Rhinox's insistence on her taking a seat. She wasn't sure how long her strength would have held if she'd remained standing. It seemed she would still need several days of recovery in her own quarters before she was truly ready to return to duty.

With Dinobot now seated, everyone quickly amassed around her in a loose circle. Rattrap was instantly beside her, standing to the left of her chair. He held himself unusually straight with his chest puffed out in open pride as Dinobot repositioned Switchblade into a more comfortable position in her arms. The infant let out a sleepy warble, his optics still shuttered tight with sleep.

"How are you feeling, Dinobot?" Airazor asked, her facial plates beaming with happiness as she leaned forward to better see the sparkling in the warrioress's arm. The other Maximals made more of an attempt to restrain themselves from such open displays of curiosity, but not by much. Each and every optic there was focused on the tiny sparkling. Dinobot's arms unconsciously tightened around her son.

"I am without complaint," she said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "I should be able to return to regular duty within the week."

"Congratulations to both of you," Optimus said. A wide smile split his face. "You have a beautiful sparkling."

"Yes, congratulations," Tigatron seconded. A small chorus of similar sentiments echoed from the rest of the crew.

Beside Dinobot, Rattrap puffed his chest out even more and grinned proudly. The spy's posture reminded the warrioress slightly of a preening peacock. "Dang right he's good lookin'," he trumpeted. "Best lookin' sparkling dis side ov' da galaxy." Leaning closer to Dinobot, he draped one arm behind her across the back of her chair.

"That's not hard to say when it's the _only_ sparkling this side of the galaxy," Blackarachnia snidely pointed out from the back of the group.

"Have you named him yet?" Silverbolt asked.

Dinobot nodded. "We gave him the designation Switchblade."

"Switch fer short," Rattrap chimed in.

"Any particular reason for choosing that?" Tigatron asked.

Carefully resting her son in the dip of her lap, the warrioress pressed one finger against the underside of the infant's foot. A tiny foot claw dutifully extended under the pressure.

An audible murmur of wonder rippled through the group.

"Interesting," Optimus murmured. "He already has the genetic coding for a beast-mode."

"Yea, yea," Rattrap groused. "Let's not make a big deal out ov' it, kay? Bad enough da kid already looks so much like Choppa'face without him takin' after her beast-mode too an' addin' another saurian to da group."

"You don't really sound _too _distraught at the prospect though," Silverbolt pointed out with a teasing grin.

The spy just shrugged his shoulders. "Eh. He's my kid. I gotta like him even if he's doomed ta be a lizard."

"Better than a rodent," Dinobot shot back.

"He's so tiny," Cheetor said, staring at the sparkling's curled frame. "Can't say he didn't take after you in that respect, Rattrap."

The spy growled in mock affront. "Don't you be pickin' on my kid, got it, Spots? 'Cause I'll blast ya if ya do."

Cheetor held his hands up as if in surrender, chuckling playfully.

"Can I hold him?" Airazor asked.

Dinobot stiffened, warily eyeing the flier. Deep down in her spark she knew the soft-sparked femme would never do anything untowards her son, but decades of experience and Predacon instincts nonetheless made the warrioress's circuits sizzle with apprehension. Forcing down her reluctance if only to prove to herself she wasn't overly attached to the sparkling, Dinobot carefully passed Switchblade over into the other femme's outstretched arms.

Airazor settled the infant against her breastplate, gently rocking him in her arms. Against the muted brown tones of her superstructure Switchblade's protoform seemed to shine an even brighter shade of silvery blue. "Hey there, sweet spark. Aren't you just the cutest little thing," she cooed down at him. "You can call me your Aunt Airazor."

Dinobot inwardly frowned. Despite her allegiance with the Maximals she did not feel it was proper for any of them to make such a personal claim on her son. Switchblade was hers and Rattrap's. She didn't relish the idea of sharing him with anyone else through titles that were usually reserved for only members of the creators' extended spark-lines. It was then, however, that Dinobot remembered that neither she nor Rattrap had any extended family to really speak of. If Switchblade was to survive this war and make it back to their home planet he would need a network of sympathetic caretakers to help insure his safety. Although Dinobot didn't like to admit it, her Maximal comrades had become an extended family of sorts. They had accepted her into their ranks as one of their own and seemed to have done so for her son as well. If allowing them to connect with her offspring through foster familial titles helped insure her son's place among them then she was willing to concede this minor point.

With maternal-like care, Airazor passed the sparkling to Tigatron who cradled him against his snowy white chest. The scout rocked the infant in his arms for several minutes, smiling softly at the sleeping infant, before gently passing him to Silverbolt. Dinobot watched like a hawk as her son was passed around the room from crewmember to crewmember, all of them marveling at the tiny new addition to their group. It was somewhat of a shock to her to see the usually dignified mechs she fought beside become so tender and soft as they held her infant son. Never would she have witnessed such a thing amongst her former faction. In Predacon society sparkling were sequestered and rarely ever taken out in public until they were old enough for their first fitting of armor. To do so any earlier would be a risk to the progeny's safety. Nor would Predacon mechs (or femmes for that matter) have ever been reduced to such sentimental gentleness by the sight of a newspark. Gentleness was not an option for Predacons so it was never introduced to them, even in infancy. Yet here, amongst her Maximal crewmates, it felt strangely right to see the battle-toughened group of explorers-turned-soldiers revert to their softer programming. Despite a possessive desire to keep her progeny within sight Dinobot felt no danger in letting her Maximal crewmates handle him.

"Here," Silverbolt said, holding the sleeping sparkling out to Blackarachnia next. "Why don't you try holding him?"

The black widow hastily shook her head, even going so far as to take a step backwards from the proffered sparkling. "No thanks. I don't want it purging on me or anything."

"I'll take him!" Cheetor excitedly said. Darting forward he snatched the infant out of the fuzor's arms.

Dinobot wasn't the only one who cringed at the younger Maximal's roughness. She felt Rattrap stiffen sharply beside her as the younger Maximal took their son. Although Cheetor had outgrown much of his recklessness since landing here, there was no denying he still had a tendency to get caught up in his youthful exuberance at times. Dinobot unconsciously leaned forward in her seat, ready to leap up and reclaim her son at a moment's notice should Cheetor agitate Switchblade too much.

Settling the sparkling in the crux of his elbow, Cheetor gently bounced the infant in his arms. "Hey there, Switch. You just wait until you're a little bit older and then I'll show you all the cool things on this planet." Woken by the racer's jostling, the sparkling onlined his optics and gave a sharp electronic chirp. Switchblade's facial plates scrunched together in agitation as he began squirming uncomfortably in Cheetor's arms. "Okay, okay, okay, don't cry. Your mom'll kill me if you do," Cheetor pleaded. "It's alright, really. Shh, shh, shh." As promised, he immediately stopped bouncing the infant and gently rocked Switchblade back and forth in his arms as though in apology. Quieted by the calming sway, the sparkling settled against the racer and gave a sleepy warble. Tucking his limbs close to his body, he slowly drifted off once more into recharge.

"He's so adorable," Airazor crooned.

"Just darling," Blackarachnia mocked, rolling her optics.

"See. Told'ja he was cute," Rattrap smirked with a triumphant glance at Dinobot. Dinobot pointedly ignored him.

"Here, big bot, why don't you hold him," Cheetor offered and held the sparkling out to the last member of their group. Dinobot sat a little straighter in her seat as the Maximal leader accepted the tiny blue protoform and cradled Switchblade in the palm of one massive hand. For several klicks, Optimus stared at her infant son with soft, wistful optics.

"He really is beautiful. Congratulations, both of you," he said, tenderly stroking the side of Switchblade's face with one finger. The transmetal gorilla was unable to keep a smile from spreading across his face as the infant gave an electronic mewl in his sleep and curled closer to his thumb for warmth.

Slowly, Dinobot scooted herself to the edge of her seat and sat up straighter. "In Predacon society when a sparkling comes online, especially a son, the infant is presented to the one of the grandsires for acceptance into the family unit. Since neither my nor the vermin's sire is here, I wish to formally present my son Switchblade to you, Optimus Primal, and ask that you accept him into this group. He has received Maximal activation codes and I wish him to be raised as one with your blessing."

"Of course," Optimus said, slightly stunned by the raptor's request. "I am deeply honored to be the one to formally welcome your son amongst us. If anything were to ever happen to you and Rattrap please know that one of us will see to it that Switchblade is taken care of. We will look after him like our own."

"Thank you," Dinobot murmured, bowing her head to him in stoic gratitude.

Smiling, Optimus leaned down and transferred the sparkling back into his mother's care. Dinobot eagerly took Switchblade and settled him against her breastplate. She hadn't realized how tense she'd been watching everyone else handle him until he'd been returned to her and she'd allowed herself to finally relax.

_You are becoming too attached_, the voice hissed in the back of her mind again. _How are you to earn a glorious death if you allow your emotions to override your sense of honor?_

Dinobot shook the voice away, but wasn't able to completely banish the echo of its condemnations from her mind. At least now with the presentation of Switch to the rest of the crew she knew he would be taken care of when she was no longer there to protect him herself.

* * *

Talon paced up and down the length of the Darksyde's bridge. Megatron watched her out of the corner of one optic from his command chair. The femme's footsteps were agitated, her body language tense. Other members of the crew were scattered about the command deck doing various tasks. All of them were taking noticeable care to stay out of Talon's path.

Megatron frowned. The transmetal raptor had been pacing like this for almost an hour and it was starting to become annoying. "My dear Talon," he called to her. "Come sit with me. Your agitation is beginning to wear on my circuits."

Talon shook her head. "I don't like this. It's not right." She turned and glared at the occupied CR tank on the bridge's lower deck. A large shadowy figure was visible at the bottom of the tank through the viscous liquid. "That… _thing_ should have been killed the moment its stasis pod crashed. The damage the pod sustained upon impact would have immediately killed any normal bot. Yet that thing survived three weeks in the jungle in a stasis pod with damaged life support systems. Not to mention it continues to function even though you removed its spark. How is such a thing possible?" Stalking towards Megatron, Talon stood before him and speared him with a look that could have only been described as subdued panic. "Please, my lord, destroy it! It's an abomination. Nothing good can come from us possessing this monstrosity."

Megatron just laughed. "Let's not be too hasty," he said, chuckling at his lover's agitation. With deliberate slowness, as if to make a show of it, the warlord lifted an orb of pulsing white light - the living spark of the damaged stasis pod's occupant. It was held in a small cage lined with raw energon crystals that speared the pulsing spark in place. Turning the energon cage slowly over in his hand, Megatron glanced back as Talon. "A living weapon that cannot be killed by conventional means. You must admit it's an intriguing prospect. Think of the possibilities possessing such a being could bring."

Talon, however, was unconvinced. "It's too dangerous," she snarled, glancing once more at the occupied CR tank. "We do not know if those energon crystals will be enough to subdue it should the creature go wild. There was a reason the Maximals locked that thing in a double-reinforced stasis pod and marked it with an X."

Megatron inwardly grinned. Many of Talon's concerns were valid, but in Megatron's opinion the dangers far outweighed the risk of having this new addition to their crew. And there _were_ dangers. Of that he had no doubt. Over the years he'd heard rumors of secret experiments being conducting on the Decepticon commander Starscream's indestructible spark by Maximal scientists. He'd suspected the identity of the stasis pod's occupant as soon as he'd seen the X emblazed across its front. It was the legendary Protoform X - a creature immune to all Cybertronian weaknesses, including death itself. It was the perfect weapon. But because of the Maximals' fears and hesitation to expand into previously unknown realms of science, they'd decided to hide their creation away in the farthest reaches of the cosmos. No doubt that had been the Axalon crew's true mission - to find some uninhabited planet in the far reaches of some backwater galaxy and dump their unwanted cargo. Fools. What a waste of scientific achievement. Megatron, however, meant to see to it that the Maximals' discarded technology was put to good use in his hands.

"We will not destroy it," Megatron said. "Coming into possession of this protoform might just tip this war's scales of power back in our favor."

"But what if it becomes loose, my lord?" Talon asked, beseechingly staring at her lover. "What if it tries to attack you?"

"Then I know you and my other loyal servants will act accordingly." Reaching out, Megatron took Talon by the arm and pulled her closer to him. The raptor gave no resistance and willingly let him drag her to his side. "I know you will not allow any harm to come to me if our new recruit proves reluctant to join," Megatron purred in a sultry whisper, trailing his hand possessively down Talon's arm. "I trust your skills more than anyone else's. I know you will not let any harm befall me."

Megatron felt the tension in Talon's body ease and gradually melt away. The warlord grinned. That was one of things he loved most about Dinobot's transmetal clone: the ease in which she succumbed to his flattery and attention. She did not react that way to anyone else. Only him.

_Mine,_ the warlord thought with a grin, rubbing his thumb in slow, heavy circles against the back of his consort's hand. He felt almost foolish now looking back on how hopelessly besotted he'd been with Talon's original counterpart. He'd been so caught up in reclaiming Dinobot for his own and wallowing in self-pity when he'd learned she was carrying the Maximal spy's progeny that he'd never truly considered Talon a suitable replacement for her. He'd been such a fool. The qualities that had originally soured her towards him he now saw as indispensable assets. The first and foremost of these being her complete and unquestioning devotion to him. Although he'd claimed the transmetal clone as his own more than a month and a half ago he still had yet to tire of the way she offered herself to him both body, mind and spark. Everything she did was in service to him. Like a perfect warrior she never once complained or asked for anything in return except his attention which Megatron was more than willing to supply if that was what it took to keep her content. Talon was the perfect consort. Strong, skilled and ruthless both on the battlefield and in his berth, Megatron couldn't have asked for a better female companion. Not even the Maximal-loving traitor Dinobot despite how obsessed he'd once been with her could steal his attention away from her now. Talon was everything Dinobot was and more. Intelligent, deadly, and loyal to a fault to no one else but him, she was the living embodiment of everything he desired in a femme.

Talon eagerly drank in the warlord's attention, but Megatron could still feel a faint thrum of tension in the femme's cable lines. "I trust your judgment, my lord," she demurred, "but I still feel uneasy about this. Everything concerning this creature feels… wrong. I feel it deep inside my spark."

"And as I said I trust in your skills to never let any harm come to me," Megatron countered. "If it will help ease your worries, though, once our new recruit is repaired and wakes I will give you his spark to safeguard. You will be responsible for him and discipline him whenever necessary to assure his continued loyalty to the Predacon cause. You will be his jailor, so to speak. I trust you will not fail me in this?"

"No, my lord," Talon quickly assured.

Megatron grinned and reached up to run the back of his fingers down the side of Talon's face in a lover's caress. "That's what I like to hear." Talon bowed her head, greedily leaning into his touch. Megatron smirked. There was the submissive femme he'd claimed as his consort…

A sudden chirp sounded from the CR tank. A light on its control panel blinked green, signaling that it had finished repairs. The mesh flooring automatically began to rise, lifting the shadowy figure laying at the bottom of the tank to the surface.

Megatron and Talon both turned towards it. The other Predacons scattered around the bridge all moved closer, curious to see the mysterious Maximal protoform their leader had brought back from the jungle. They ringed the upper level of the deck, staring down at the CR tank as its occupant broke the surface of the tank's nanite-infused liquid constitute.

The Predacon warlord leaned forward in his seat. Their new recruit had spent the last day and a half being repaired from his stasis pod's crash landing. He was eager to finally meet the living weapon he intended to turn loose against his Maximal enemies.

Protoform X rolled his broad shoulders with a garbled roar as he came into the air and stretched. A set of three arthropod-like legs framed either side of body, completed by a set of massive pinchers hanging down his back. It seemed before going offline Protoform X's stasis pod had managed to run a DNA scan of the area and format him with what looked like a crab beast mode. Although shorter in height than Megatron, Protoform X was stocky and looked solidly built. His superstructure was heavily armored. Megatron grinned at the sight of red and purple transmetal plates covering the protoform's body. Nor did he fail to notice the sets of miniature cannons mounted to both his shoulders.

_Excellent,_ he thought with a decidedly evil grin. If his plans worked out the way they were suppose to then Optimus Primal and his band of Maximals were going to have a very rough time standing up to his crew the next time they met in open battle.

To his left, Talon stiffened sharply in place. Her facial plates contorted into a sneer of open contempt and distrust. Megatron reached out and placed a warning hand on her arm. He did not need his consort letting her emotions get the better of her and starting a fight before he even had the opportunity to greet their new servant. Talon reluctantly forced herself to stand down, but Megatron could still feel the tension vibrating his lover's frame.

"Greetings, Protoform X," he called down to the transmetal warrior. "Welcome to the Predacons."

"I don't remember joining you," the transmetal crab hissed back up at him. "I take orders from no one."

"You will learn to take orders from _me_," Megatron replied in a deceptively calm voice that nonetheless conveyed a hint of threat with it. "For I am your new master."

Protoform X growled, his optics narrowing at Megatron. "You dare place yourself above me?" he snarled. His tone was openly hostile. "Compared to me you are nothing but a worm writhing on the ground. I will neither obey you nor ever willingly submit myself to you. I am slave to no one."

Beside Megatron, Talon snarled. Her tail angrily lashed the air behind her. "You will show respect to Lord Megatron," she growled through gritted teeth. Every diode of her body was tense, ready to lunge at the transmetal protoform. "I will not stand here and listen to you speak so disrespectfully towards him."

Protoform X slowly turned to look at Talon, as though only now noticing her presence. "A femme," he crowed in surprised delight. With slow deliberateness, like a predator sniffing the air for prey, he drew in a deep intake of air. "Ah, I can smell you from here. You smell sweet. I will enjoy dismantling you and feasting on your still pulsing spark. I always did find the taste of fem-sparks to be much more savory than those of males. You will make a fine meal. And I am _so_ hungry after my stay in that stasis pod…" Chuckling to himself, the transmetal protoform stepped out of the CR tank and began to advance on the bridge's upper deck.

There was a blur of motion off to Megatron's side, and before he could realize what had happened Inferno was suddenly standing directly in front of Talon between her and the approaching protoform. The fire ant's flame thrower was already out and trained on Protoform X's chest. "I will not allow you to harm the Queen!" he snarled.

"You cannot stop me," Protoform X laughed. "After I am finished devouring the femme I will feast on your spark for dessert."

Inferno tensed. His protective stance deepened. Behind the fire ant, Talon snarled, her body hunched and her finger blades bared in anticipation for a fight.

Protoform X gave a malicious chuckle of delight, his optics bright with hunger.

Without conscious thought, Megatron snatched the entrapped spark up from the arm of his chair and brutally squeezed its two sides together between his hand. The shards of raw energon sank into the pulsing orb of light. Almost instantaneously Protoform X dropped to the ground, writhing in pain. His agonized screams echoed through the bridge. After several moments Megatron finally released his hold on the spark, allowing the energon crystals to retract from its depths. Protoform X lay on the ground, panting heavily for air.

"You will _not_ threaten my consort in my presence," Megatron growled down at him, his tone dangerous. "You will show her respect or I will repeat what I just did until you learn who your masters are. Talon is mine and any threat towards her is automatically a threat towards me. Do you understand?"

Struggling for intakes, Protoform X shakily nodded. "Yes," he growled. He glared up at Megatron and Talon, his optics burning with hate.

Leaning back in his chair, Megatron toyed with the disembodied spark in his hand - slowly turning it over back and forth in his hand. "I can tell right now that you will be a useful addition to the Predacons so long as you remember who wields the power. Never forget who holds your life force in their hands. Your spark now belongs to me. Welcome to the Beast Wars… Rampage."

Okay. Cute and cuddly scenes are now officially over and done with. We are finally delving back into the actual plot line. Any thoughts on Rampage's appearance?

PLEASE REVIEW!

P.S. Links to some illustrations of Switchblade can be found on my profile page. You can thank _Cu-Curee_ for convincing me to draw them.


	17. Alien Transmission

**Chapter Seventeen: Alien Transmission**

There was a brisk chill in the air. The warmer months were swiftly drawing to a close. Soon winter would descend and blanket the ground in a crusty layer of frost. A cloudless blue sky stretched out overhead. Open fields of brown stretched out in every which direction towards the horizons. Only thin clusters of scrub grass and cold-weather shrubs gave any variety to the otherwise empty landscape.

Dinobot, however, found the autumnal barrenness exhilarating. For the first time in almost two months she was outside the Axalon. She was conducting a simple border patrol - absolutely nothing special. She'd done patrols like this countless times before. But this particular time was different in that it represented her liberation from weeks of forced seclusion and her long-awaited return to active duty. The warrioress had never felt so free before. It was as if bonds of invisible steel she hadn't even realized had been shackling her had been removed, leaving her weightless and free. In beast mode the feel of open air on her artificial skin was the most sinfully delightful sensation she'd felt in almost as long as she could remember.

Airazor circled high above Dinobot in the sky. Although the raptor usually would have gone out on patrol by herself Optimus had ordered that someone accompany her until they were certain she was one hundred percent back up to battle specs. Although Dinobot had found the stipulations of her patrol demeaning, she'd nonetheless acquiesced to them for no other reason than to finally be allowed off ship. After giving birth to her son more than a week and a half ago she would have agreed to almost anything to be allowed to return to duty.

"_Airazor to Dinobot. You see anything down there?"_ the flier's voice crackled over their comm-link.

"Negative," Dinobot replied. For the last several hours neither she nor her aerial companion had seen any hint of Predacon activity anywhere along their border.

"_We've made a full sweep of the area,_" Airazor said. "_You ready to head back to base? We've already been gone a good portion of the day. We should probably head back to give our report."_

The ex-Predacon warrior hesitated. Although Airazor was right and they'd completed their patrol to satisfaction, she didn't feel like going back just yet. After more than two months trapped onboard the Axalon, several hours in the field did not feel like a long enough time to purge her of memories of the mild claustrophobia that'd often plagued her over the course of the forced sequestration of her pregnancy.

As though sensing the other femme's hesitation, Airazor called over the link, "_I'm sure Rattrap and Switch are waiting for you. Especially Switch. This is the first time you've been away from him for so long."_

Dinobot inwardly growled. Why did the flier have to try to manipulate her with hinted obligations to her lover and offspring? Everyone knew she preferred to be out in the field, not trapped onboard the Maximals' crippled starship playing maternal unit. If there was a battle to be fought, it would not be found onboard but rather outside where enemy combatants would try to launch an attack. Nor did she believe her son was old enough to actually register her absence so long as his father was nearby to attend his needs.

Despite this Dinobot heaved a defeated sigh and said back into the link, "Fine. We will return."

Together the two femmes veered west back towards the Axalon.

It was somewhat disquieting how easily Airazor had convinced her to head back, Dinobot mused with a frown as she jogged across the barren plains. Before taking the vermin as her lover and bearing him a son she never would have succumbed to such persuasions. Before sparkbearing she would have snapped at Airazor to focus on their mission and turned back to do another sweep on the area just to be spiteful. But now… now the thought of making her lover and son wait for her made her spark constrict slightly with guilt. As much as she hated to admit it a part of her did wonder how they were fairing in her absence. Nor was there any denying the instinctive desire to check on her progeny's status.

Although Switchblade was now almost two weeks old Dinobot was still startled at times by the comfortable domestic routine she'd fallen into since giving birth. During the day while she trained or was on duty Rattrap watched over their son just as he'd promised he would. And at night she shared her berth with him just like she used to do before her pregnancy while their sparkling recharged on the floor in an empty desk drawer lined with thermal sheets. Rattrap had all but taken up permanent residence in Dinobot's quarters since their son's birth. Despite her earlier reluctance to combine quarters with him, the warrioress had yet to feel the need to push him away. Perhaps that was because she knew that if she ever felt it necessary for them to spend the night in separate quarters the spy's rooms were still available to him on the other end of the hall. Except for their usual bickering and meaningless name-calling no incidents had risen yet to make her want to banish him from her room. It was strangely comforting at night to lay in bed and listen to the gentle whispers of her lover's and son's intakes in the dark.

The only downfall Dinobot had experienced so far of them sharing quarters was Switchblade's midnight refuelings. Rattrap was always the first one off the berth at the sound of their son's hungry chirps, but the warrioress had come to find it near impossible to drift back into recharge until her lover had settled their son back down for the night and laid back down beside her.

_Damn these Maximals and their soft-sparked influence,_ Dinobot silently seethed, but without any real anger which only made her more annoyed with herself for not feeling any self-reprimand for this newfound weakness.

Before too long the Axalon came into view. Airazor swooped lower so that she flew only several feet off the ground next to Dinobot. The outer defenses were automatically dropped for them as they neared and within seconds both she and Airazor came to a stop at the base of one of the main lifts. As the lift descended the two femmes transformed to their bi-pedal forms with a quick command.

"Was it nice to be out on patrol again?" Airazor asked as they stepped into the lift and it began its slow assent back up to the command deck.

"Yes," Dinobot replied with a short grunt.

The lift came to a halt and the glass doors slid open with a pneumatic hiss. There were several others already on bridge. Optimus and Tigatron were near the holo-table looking at a three-dimensional map while Rhinox ran a diagnostic scan on the ship's system on the other side of the room. And sitting next to the engineer at another bank of monitors was none other than her lover, Rattrap. The spy sat leaning back in his chair with both feet propped up on the edge of the computer station. In his arms he cradled his and Dinobot's infant son against his chest. Dinobot unconsciously relaxed at the sight of them.

Beside her, Airazor leaned closer to whisper in her audio. "And is it nice to be back at base again?" she asked with a teasing smile.

Dinobot refused to look at the flier and brusquely walked away from her as though she hadn't even heard her question. She didn't need to look behind her to know a satisfied grin was on Airazor's face. She still had yet to figure out why Airazor seemed to take such an interest in her and her love affairs.

"Hey ya, Choppa'face," Rattrap said as he swiveled around his seat to greet her. "How was patrol? Ya slag any Preds while ya were out?"

"Unfortunately it appears Megatron has no ill designs planned against us today, so our patrol passed without incident." Striding up to her lover the warrioress bent down to inspect their son. Switchblade was deep in recharge. He didn't even stir in his father's arm when she reached out and ran a cursory hand down the back of his head. "Has the sparkling given you any problems while you've been on duty?" she asked in a curious but businesslike tone. There was no reason for her to appear too concerned with the day to day care of their progeny. Rattrap's promise to look after Switchblade's needs had been the only reason she'd finally agreed to bear him.

"Naw," Rattrap said, shaking his head. "He's been sleepin' all day. Been as quiet as a mouse, so ta speak."

Dinobot nodded. So far Switchblade had proven himself to be a surprisingly quiet sparkling. He spent the majority of each day recharging, and only woke every three or four hours for feedings. At first Dinobot had been slightly concerned about her progeny's near constant state of sleepiness. But Rhinox had explained that such a thing was to be expected given Switchblade's early delivery. If Dinobot had not had her delivery sequence triggered almost a week and a half early Switchblade would have spent that time recharging inside her beneath her sparkchamber rather than in one of his creator's arms. Despite her son's premature weight and size Dinobot had already noticed a slight increase in both over the last two weeks. Although still small and unnervingly delicate, her progeny seemed healthy and well cared for by his father.

"I plan to spend the next few hours practicing my sword skills," Dinobot said as she stood straight from over her son. "Will that be a problem?"

"Naw," Rattrap shook his head. "I still got two hours of monitor duty, an' Switch's been so quiet it's like he's not even here. Go. Get outta here. I'll see ya later after I get off duty."

Dinobot hesitated only a moment before giving a brusque nod and turning towards the door. She was careful to keep her facial plates void of emotions as she strode out of the room. She didn't need Airazor pointing out how glad she seemed to be back with her family despite her stubborn proclamations otherwise. She didn't need everyone to know just how little truth there was to her claims of emotional detachment. She had to keep her warrior's mask firmly in place. To betray any hint of emotional attachment now would do nothing but weaken her resolve to do what she knew was needed of her when the time finally came. If not for her honor, then for her lover and son's protection she had to remain strong. Weakness had no place on the battlefield and nothing but her best would ensure their safe return to Cybertron. And she meant to see them through this war even if that meant putting on a false air of indifference towards them until her final battle finally came…

* * *

On the other side of the room Airazor strode up to Tigatron and Optimus at the holo-table. The two were deeply engrossed in conversation. Usually Airazor wouldn't have interrupted them given the serious looks on their faces but she'd noticed that they were looking at a 3D map of the eastern sectors. She recognized the topography. It was the same area she and Tigatron had spent several days scouting for a mysterious energy signal a month ago. Whenever they'd gotten close it would mysteriously disappear, and always before they could pinpoint its exact location.

"Something happen while I was away?" she asked as she came up beside the two.

"As a matter of fact, yes," Optimus replied. "Tigatron got another hit on that strange energy signature you two detected about a month or so ago with the ship's scanners."

"But just like last time, every time we get close to narrowing down its location it suddenly disappears from the screen," Tigatron said with a frustrated sigh.

"Where did you detect it before it disappeared?" Airazor asked, leaning closer to the digital hologram.

"Here," Tigatron said and pointed to the upper left quadrant of the map. That particular area was more than twenty miles square and comprised of hilly, densely vegetated land. Finding anything in that area without knowing where to start looking would be like trying to find a micro-chip in a supercomputer. "That was as close a location we could determine before our scanners lost track of it."

Airazor thoughtfully stared at the map. Unfortunately this latest reading didn't give them anymore useful information than what they already knew. She and Tigatron had scouted at lot of that sector the last time they'd tried looking for the strange energy signature, including part of several of the surrounding ones as well but not found anything to help explain where or what it was.

On the other side of the holo-map Optimus heaved a heavy sigh. "I know this might sound like a waste of time given the amount of effort you've already put into looking for it, but would you two be willing to go out again to do another search for this energy signal? You are our best scouts and know which areas you've already searched. I wouldn't be asking you to do this if this energy signature wasn't so strange. I'm just afraid this might somehow be Megatron's doing. And after his last stunt with that bomb and the energon vein I don't want to take any chances of him hitting us with something we weren't expecting."

"It's no problem, Optimus," Airazor said. "This worries me too. Normal energy signatures don't disappear and reappear like this. I'd actually welcome a second chance to find out what's going on."

"Same here," Tigatron agreed. "This must be investigated further. Even if it takes Airazor and I several scouting missions to do so we will find out what this energy signal is."

"Thank you," Optimus nodded. "I knew I could count on you two."

Airazor dipped her head to Optimus, but out of the corner of her optic she cast Tigatron a secretive glance. Despite the seriousness of their mission the flier couldn't deny she wasn't looking forward to the opportunity to be alone with her lover away from base. Airazor's spark fluttered with anticipation at the look Tigatron sent her in reply. They would go look for this mysterious energy signature, but not without a few quiet minutes to themselves while doing so.

* * *

Several hours later found the two scouts nearing the eastern edge of Maximal territory. They'd traveled hard and reached the area in less time than they'd expected.

Airazor glided through the air on a slipstream several hundred feet above the ground. Her beast-mode's shadow skirted across the top of the forest canopy below her. Scanning the landscape she marveled at the differences between this land and the area immediately in the Axalon's vicinity. Back near base the land still bore heavy scars from the alien quantum surge that'd scorched the earth half a stellar cycle ago. Besides small clusters of grass and sickly woody plants, nothing else had yet to grow in the wake of the devastation. But this area was still lush with vegetation and wildlife. Below, Airazor heard the faint echo of excited bird calls in the trees and murmured grunts of larger animals closer to the forest floor. A loamy scent was carried on the wind, giving testament to the fertileness of the land below.

Far below her on the ground Tigatron's snowy white figure darted in and out of sight between the leafy boughs of the trees. Scouting the terrain Airazor noticed an open field not far ahead of them. With a screechy call to her lover the flier swooped down out of the sky towards it. Tigatron followed after her.

Airazor swooped low and lighted on the ground in the middle of the clearing with a graceful beat of her wings. With a quick command she transformed into her robot form. Tigatron appeared out of the surrounding tree line almost immediately on her heels and met her in the middle of the grassy field where he too transformed.

Spinning slowly around in place the female flier drank in the surrounding area. "Isn't it beautiful here, Tigatron?" she asked as the other scout came up beside her. The air around them teemed with butterflies and other winged insects. The scent of damp earth and flowers was clearer now that she was on the ground. She drew in a deep intake through her nasal lines to better appreciate the delicate layers of overlapping scents. "I wish the land near base would recover faster. I miss the smell of flowers. It smells so clean here. So… alive!"

Beside her Tigatron chuckled, the sound deep and sonorous. "I know what you mean, my lady. For I too miss the scent of nature. It is a tragedy this planet had to suffer so much damage from that quantum surge. I can only hope that next year around this time the land closer to base is once again able to support as much life as this place does."

Sidling closer to Airazor, Tigatron reached out and gently encircled the flier with his arms. Airazor smiled and turned in her lover's embrace so that she faced him. Her own arms came up to circle the scout's waist. The radiating warmth of his superstructure seemed to seep into her all the way to her core.

"I would love that," she murmured, staring deeply into Tigatron's optics.

"Not as much as I love you at this moment," the scout replied in a husky whisper. Airazor's spark thrummed against the inside of her sparkchamber at the unexpected proclamation. As though unable to restrain his emotions anymore Tigatron craned his face down closer to Airazor's.

Airazor eagerly leaned up to meet him, their lips coming together in a passionate kiss. Both sets of arms tightened, pulling their bodies against each other. The flier gave herself up totally to the power of her lover's warmth. She let herself be caught up and swept away by it. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to be as close as she could to Tigatron and soak in the essence of his presence. For several minutes they remained locked together, lost in their own little world of pleasure which no one else but them could enter.

Before either of them could lose themselves completely to passion, however, Tigatron gently broke their kiss and leaned back from Airazor. His facial plates were flushed a dark teal from their short but intense kiss. Their bodies still tightly pressed against each other, Airazor could feel the scout's spark pulsing wildly against the inside of his chestplate the same as hers was. Tigatron stared down at her, his optics swimming with tenderness and love. Airazor held his gaze steadily with her own. She could only hope her optics were able to convey even a fraction of the churning sea of love she felt for him through her gaze. They must have been because Tigatron seemed unable to tear his optics away from her.

"We should probably look for that energy signature," he finally said in a noticeably strained voice. "There is time enough for us to continue this later after we've completed our mission."

"You're right," Airazor reluctantly agreed. Neither made any immediate attempt to move out of the other's arms though. Airazor's lips still tingled in memory of her lover's mouth pressed against them. With great reluctance, the flier slowly extracted herself from Tigatron's arms. "Later," she promised in a husky whisper.

"Later," Tigatron agreed with a smile.

Together, the two of them each pulled out a handheld scanner from their subspace compartments and turned them on. Almost immediately the devices began to chirp and bleep with agitation.

"That was fast," Tigatron muttered in surprise.

"Looks like we got lucky," Airazor said as she fiddled with her scanner's settings. "It seems we managed to stumble across that energy signature we were looking for without even trying. We might be able to go home even earlier than we expected."

"Let's go," Tigatron said.

Following the readings, the two scouts jogged across the field towards a steep grassy rise. As they neared the top the hill the energy readings suddenly spiked. Their scanners beeped frantically. Coming to the crest Airazor dropped to the ground and carefully peered down over the side. Tigatron pressed himself to the ground beside her.

"What do you see?" he asked in a hushed whisper. "Is it Megatron?"

For a moment Airazor couldn't find the words to describe what she saw. "It's… a plant," she finally managed to reply.

Tigatron crept closer to the top of the hill to see for himself. Just as Airazor had said, in the middle of the gully below a giant plant grew. The plant was tuber shaped, like a giant unplanted tulip bulb. It had to be at least several dozen feet wide and just as many tall. Thick green vines trailed across the ground all around it like wheel spokes from a central hub. Here and there along the vines delicate pink flowers bloomed which dozens of colorful butterflies danced and flitted around. A strange aura of calm surrounded the plant, like it physically radiated peace and tranquility.

Airazor glanced at the scanner in her hand. According to the readings, the strange energy signature was coming directly from the plant. The scanner also said that this was the same energy signature she and Tigatron had picked up more than a month ago. Confusion assailed Airazor. This didn't make any sense. How could a plant be giving off an energy signature?

"What do you make of this, Tigatron?" she asked in a hushed voice. She didn't know why she spoke so quietly even though she knew there was no one else in the area except them. Nonetheless, she felt compelled by the strangeness of their discover to try and keep their presence concealed.

"I'm not sure," he said with a mystified shrug. "This is something beyond anything I've ever seen before." Slowly pushing himself up off the ground, he stood and held a hand down to Airazor to help her up. "Come, my lady. Let's go investigate this further."

Airazor's intake tank churned. She didn't know what it was but something about this felt wrong. The peacefulness of the area felt strangely out of place, like it was really some sort of ruse to cover up the plant's true purpose. Nevertheless, since there was nothing tangible to attribute her apprehension to she reluctantly followed her lover down the hill towards the plant.

Tigatron strode straight up towards one of the larger vines stretched across the ground. The heady scent of its flowers was so thick it was cloying. Airazor hung back several feet, unwilling to come any closer even as her lover knelt down on one knee to examine it.

"This is amazing, Airazor," he called over his shoulder as he ran his scanner over the vine. "The energy signature is coming directly from this plant. I wonder how this is possible. It's almost as if the plant is acting like some sort of generator."

Airazor shifted uneasily in place. The feeling of utter _wrongness_ she felt for this place seemed to grow a little stronger with each passing moment. She suddenly had the intense desire to flee. Something wasn't right here. "Tigatron, I think we should fall back and contact base. I think Optimus should come see this for himself, and maybe with a backup team."

"Perhaps," Tigatron agreed. "But first let me collect a sample so we can examine this thing more closely back at base. At first glance I would almost have to say that this plant species is not native to this planet." Leaning closer to the plant the scout removed a small sample kit from his hip compartment. He selected a small scalpel and plastic test tube from the case. Carefully, he sunk the scalpel into the fleshy vine and began to carve out a small square of fibrous material.

Without warning - too fast for Airazor to even say what actually happened when she later tried to recall the horrible event - the plant seemed to come to life. The vines growing out of the main bulb all sprang up and began to slither across the ground towards Tigatron with alarming speed. Before the scout could even take a step backwards from the plant, the vines began to curl around his arms and legs like octopus tentacles.

"Tigatron!" Airazor called, springing forward to help her lover.

"No!" Tigatron cried as the vines continued to climb up his body and tighten around him. "Get out of here! Go get help!"

One vine suddenly darted towards Airazor, its leafy length coiling around her ankle like an anaconda.

"Run!" Tigatron screamed. The vines had him now completely trapped. Airazor could only see his face and part of one arm sticking out of the writhing knot of vines. "Save yourself!"

Airazor desperately wrenched her foot back, pulling it free of the vine's hold. "Beast mode!" she cried and shot up into the air with a powerful flap of her wings. Like a predator unwilling to let its prey escape so easily, the vine reared up off the ground after her. It swung through the air and caught her square in the side. Airazor was momentarily stunned by the blow. She was sent cartwheeling wildly through the air. She desperately beat her wings to regain balance. The vine swung at her again, trying to knock her out of the air. Airazor dived to the side but not fast enough to avoid it clipping her right wing. Several feather were ripped from her wing by the vine's fibrous texture and lazily drifted through the air back towards the earth. As the vine arched back for another swipe, the flier finally managed to recover her senses and climbed higher in the sky out of the vine's reach. Reaching a safe altitude she looked back.

"Tigatron!" she cried over the whistle of wind.

But she could no longer see or hear the Siberian tiger amongst the twisting mass of vines. He'd completely disappeared from view, almost as if he'd been swallowed alive.

As Airazor watched in helpless agony, the mass of vines holding her lover rose up into the air until it was centered directly overtop the bulbous center of the plant. A strange subsonic hum began to fill the air, like the sound of a generator slowly powering up. A white glow suddenly appeared around the plant as though it were some kind of luminescent bulb. The air around Airazor thrummed with energy. It felt like every particle of her being and the air around her was being shaken apart at a subatomic level. The white light continued to build until the outline of the plant disappeared from view behind the overwhelming glare. Then, just as the humming energy seemed to reach critical mass there was a violent explosion and a beam of pure white light shot straight up into the sky from the plant.

Airazor screamed as she was batted aside by the energy beam and sent tumbled through the air. It was only with supreme effort that she was able to stop herself from dropping out of the sky like a brick. Her eyes burned from the energy beam's glare. But then just as suddenly as the light had shot up into the sky, it disappeared.

Airazor furiously blinked to drive the patches of inky darkness from her eyes. Looking below she saw that the alien plant was no longer there, as if it'd never even been there at all. The only remaining proof of its existence was a scorched circle of earth in the middle of the now empty field.

For a moment Airazor could do nothing more than stare. Her mind, body and spark felt completely numb with shock. She didn't know what to do or what to even think in the wake of what just happened. Everything felt surreal, like she was really trapped in some kind of vivid nightmare.

"Tigatron?" she called into the empty silence as though her lover might still be somewhere close enough to hear. "Tigatron!"

Deep down in her spark Airazor knew that Tigatron was gone. He'd disappeared along with the plant in that mysterious beam of light. But that knowledge still wasn't enough to stop her from calling out to him as though her anguished cries might somehow be enough to return him to her side.

"TIGATRON!" she screamed. But the only thing to answer her was the eerie silence of the valley and the aching void of emptiness in her spark…

* * *

Dinobot had just finished several hours of intense sword drills in the Axalon's rear loading bay and was preparing to leave when she heard the ship's security alarms go off. A sharp piercing wail filled the air while red lights began to flash along either of the loading bay's walls. Her warrior training immediately kicking in, the raptor tensed and reached up to the comm-link unit on the side of her helm.

"Dinobot to command deck. Come in. What's going on? Is it an attack?"

There was a click on the other side of the line and Rattrap's voice filled her audios. "No. It's Airazor. She's flyin' in fast an' not waitin' fer Sentinel ta recognize her. I can't see any sign of Tigatron, an' she looks injured." In the background on Rattrap's side of the link Dinobot heard the murmur of worried voices overlapped with the sound of Switchblade chirping frightenedly somewhere near her lover.

"Manually force Sentinel to stand down," Dinobot said into the link. "I am near the ship's rear hatchway. I will go out to meet her. And tend to your son, Vermin! He sounds agitated."

"Yea, like I couldn't figure dat out myself," Rattrap sourly snapped back at her. In the background Switchblade's frightened chirps suddenly become shrill and turn into open squeals of distress. No doubt the sparkling did not find the sirens and flashing red lights appealing…

"Just calm him down," Dinobot snarled and snapped off her end of the comm-link.

Rushing for the loading bay's side hatchway the warrioress punched in the deactivation codes for the door and hurried outside. Dusk was swiftly settling over the land. The sun illuminated only one small section of the western sky. Within minutes it would be dark. Several of the ship's perimeter spot lights had come on and were pointed towards the east where Dinobot could just make out an approaching figure coming in from the air. Squinting into the harsh light she recognized Airazor's beast mode. Just like Rattrap had said, the flier seemed injured. Her wing flaps were jerky and weak. She appeared unable to maintain a direct heading and was continually batted from side to side by the buffeting headwinds. The hawk seemed to remain airborne only through the force of sheer willpower.

"Airazor!" Dinobot yelled as she jogged out into the middle of the spotlight lit area.

Airazor glided lower, as if her strength was rapidly failing. As she came up to Dinobot she transformed with a weary cry of, "Maximize!" and dropped the last few feet out of the air onto the ground in a formless heap. Dinobot hurried to her and crouched down next to her. With absolutely no warning to the ex-Predacon warrior Airazor flung herself at Dinobot and collapsed into her arms, sobbing and clinging to the larger femme as though she were the only thing solid on which she could anchor herself.

Startled by the flier's emotional display, Dinobot could do nothing more than kneel there and stare at Airazor in horrified confusion.

"He's gone! It took him! He's gone!" she cried into Dinobot's breastplate. She'd gone limp against Dinobot, forcing the warrioress to grab the flier and support her in her arms.

"What are you talking about? Where's Tigatron? Isn't he with you?" she demanded, desperately trying to discern the situation.

Airazor struggled to speak. She was so distraught her vocal processor had begun to fritz. Her speech was filled with static and punctuated with sharp little clicks. Her optics flickered on and off with distress. "It got him. It took him. I tried to warn Tigatron but it was too fast. It grabbed him and then they disappeared."

Becoming frustrated with the flier's nonsensical rambling, Dinobot grabbed Airazor by the arms and roughly shook her, hoping to rattle her back to her senses. "Who got him? Where did they go?" she demanded.

Airazor stared up at Dinobot, her expression lost and pathetic in its misery. "I don't know…" she whispered. Then giving herself completely up to grief, the flier sagged back down against Dinobot's chest and let her sorrow spill out from her in the form of anguished sobs and electronic chirps of distress.

Unable to understand anything more from Airazor's distraught report than that Tigatron was missing, Dinobot stiffly held Airazor as the flier screamed her anguish into her breastplate and clung to her for support.

Meanwhile, in the far western corner of the sky, the last little slip of sunlight disappeared from the horizon, and in its place darkness rushed forward to claim its dominance over the land.

To be continued…

My poor little love birds. Oh well. It had to happen. Any thoughts on Tigatron's disappearance?

PLEASE REVIEW!


	18. Convergence

**Chapter Eighteen: Convergence**

Only four pieces still remained on the board; two of each color. Optimus's white pieces had been decimated down to only his king and a single rook. Across from him, Dinobot studied the board with an intense look of concentration on her face. A black knight was all that remained of her original forces, plus her king. They'd been chasing each other around the board for the last thirty klicks trying to corner the other which was proving near impossible to do with no other pieces at their disposal to help box the other in.

His optics making one last futile sweep across the board, Optimus leaned back in his seat with a tired smile. "It would appear that we've reached a stalemate. What do you say, Dinobot? Draw?"

The female raptor growled with dissatisfaction, but reluctantly leaned back from the game board as well. "It would appear that you are right. I can see no way for either of us to claim victory. It is a draw for now."

"Would you like to play again?" Optimus asked.

"I would enjoy that, but unfortunately I cannot. I am scheduled to go on patrol within the hour and I must take Switchblade back to his father before I leave."

As if hearing his name there was an excited burst of electronic chatter from the floor. Both Optimus and Dinobot glanced down to find Switchblade staring up at them with a playful smile. Having successfully attracted his mother's and her commanding officer's attention, the sparkling turned back to his toys which were an array of old mechanical parts Rhinox had found in the storage room and cleaned up for him. His current favorite seemed to be an old cog wheel which the sparkling picked up and began to teethe with open contentment.

"He's getting bigger," Optimus said with a smile at Dinobot. "I still remember when you first presented him to the crew, and when Rattrap was still able to go an entire monitor shift with him asleep in his arms."

"Em," Dinobot grunted in agreement. "He grows more active with each passing solar cycle. It won't be too long now before he begins to walk as well."

Optimus glanced back at the sparkling entertaining himself on the floor. Switchblade was now almost five months old. Over the last few lunar cycles he'd begun to grow and develop enough motor skills to be able to sit up and crawl around on his own. Not even half a stellar cycle old, Switch was already proving himself to be a very active and inquisitive sparkling. He rarely ever seemed to sit still - a near constant source of exasperation for both his creators. Optimus had already begun to see signs of mischievousness in Switchblade which he found amusing to watch as the sparkling played or interacted with different members of the crew. It would be interesting to see how much more that mischievousness developed the older Switchblade got.

Growing bored with the cog wheel Switchblade tossed it aside with a gurgled chirp and picked up an old drive shaft bar and began to pound it against the floor of Optimus's quarters with great enthusiasm.

"I want to see about fitting Switchblade with a simple set of armor plating soon," Dinobot said over the metallic clangs of her son's play. "Basic helm, grieves, gauntlets and chest plate I think would suffice. He might be sequestered here aboard ship, but this alien planet is still dangerous and I would like to see to it that my son is equipped with at least the most basic form of protection."

"That's a good idea," Optimus nodded. The loud clangs and Switchblade's happy chirps grew louder in the background. "Sparklings grow up so fast. I'll talk to Rhinox about designing something for Switch."

"Thank you," Dinobot bowed her head to him. "The vermin would also like to see about constructing some sort of small pen for Switchblade to play in while he's on duty. It's too difficult for him to keep track of the sparkling and watch the monitors at the same time anymore without- Switchblade, stop that!"

The now almost deafening clangs of the metal pipe against the floor ceased as Switchblade glanced up at his mother with a devilish smirk, almost as if he'd been making so much noise with the explicit intention of getting such a reaction from her. Optimus had to suppress a bark of laughter at just how familiar the sparkling's slag-eating grin was. It was still underdeveloped and in need of some refinement, but there was no question from which of his creator's he'd inherited it from.

"He's definitely Rattrap's progeny," Optimus laughed. "No doubt about that."

On the other side of the table Dinobot gave him a half-sparked scowl. "Let no one say I was ever unfaithful to the rodent," she muttered. "I fear what kind of mech my son will become if I am not here to dissuade such inappropriate behavior from taking hold of his personality drives."

"He's a good sparkling, Dinobot. You should take pride in him," Optimus gently admonished.

The warrioress stared at her son for several moments of thoughtful silence. "I do…" she murmured under her breath almost too softly for Optimus to hear.

On the floor Switchblade dropped his toy and abruptly rolled around to face them. Holding his stubby little arms up to Dinobot he released a flurry of shrill chirps and bounced up and down in place.

Dinobot gave an exasperated sigh and bent down over the side of her chair to pick him up. Switchblade exploded into a frenzy of happy chirps as his mother settled him in her lap. Although Switchblade's language programs still had yet to develop, Optimus was continually surprised by just how expressive he could be with nothing more than varying tones to his chirps.

"Enough of that," Dinobot sternly admonished. "You make too much noise."

Obediently the sparkling fell quiet and made himself comfortable in his mother's lap with a contented burble. Despite his recent growth, Switchblade still looked positively tiny in Dinobot's arms. Over the last several months the raptor stripes on his arms and legs had darkened to a deep cobalt blue and his facial plates had developed more of Dinobot's distinct features. Although Optimus would never dare say so out loud, Switchblade looked like a perfect miniature version of his mother. His size, however, he'd inherited from Rattrap's side of the spark. There was growing doubt amongst the crew if he would grow any larger than his sire. Perched in his mother's lap Switchblade was barely able to see over the side of the table. But that didn't dissuade him from trying to awkwardly stand up in Dinobot's arms and reach for one of the captured chess pieces lining Dinobot's side of the board.

"No, Switchblade," Dinobot said.

The sparkling tilted his head back to look up at her and gave a plaintive mewl - his optics two pleading circles of red. Dinobot frowned, then with a defeated sigh snatched up one of the larger pieces and held it out to her son. Switchblade squealed with excitement and began to happily gum the proffered bishop in his mouth.

On the other side of the table Optimus smirked. Despite all of Dinobot's bluster and continued attempts to prove otherwise, he knew Switchblade had the fearsome Predacon warrioress wrapped around his little finger. Although Rattrap oversaw the majority of the sparkling's care and upkeep, Dinobot was never far away keeping watch over them despite her best attempts to feign indifference. It was almost as if she was afraid to show affection for her lover and son in public. Optimus wasn't sure why the raptor felt it so necessary to put up such a façade towards Switchblade when it was painfully obvious to him that she cared for the sparkling - perhaps even very deeply so. Maybe it was because of her racial background that she didn't like to show emotions. Predacons had never been known for their warm and caring natures, which Optimus attributed to centuries of harsh, militaristic society. Whatever the case though, it always warmed the Maximal leader's spark to see Dinobot interact with her son like this, no matter how closed off the raptor pretended to be. It proved to him that there was still hope for her someday overcoming her inability to express any feelings.

"Where are you scheduled to patrol?" he asked as Dinobot began to clean up the rest of the pieces from the game board and put them in their case.

"Sector Lambda to the east. Airazor should be returning from patrol around the same time I leave."

Optimus frowned at the mention of the flier. It had been more than four months since Tigatron's disappearance. Despite intense searches they'd been unable to find any traces of the Siberian tiger after Airazor had returned to base so distraught all those months ago. It had only been later, after they'd given up searching for the scout and the strange alien plant that'd abducted him, that they'd discovered readings of the mysterious energy beam Airazor had described on the ship's computer. According to the computer, that beam had been composed of the same type of energy as the alien quantum surge. Inside that energy signal they'd also finally found proof of where their missing comrade had gone. Just as Airazor had said, Tigatron appeared to be trapped inside the beam and had disappeared along with it after the energy beam had passed beyond the Axalon's scanner range into space. Where that energy beam was going or even if Tigatron was still alive no one could say for sure. Nor if Airazor would ever fully recover from the loss of her lover.

Since Tigatron's abduction the flier had become disturbingly quiet and withdrawn. Bereft with grief, she no longer went out on extended patrols or even left her rooms unless she was on duty. Optimus had begun to seriously worry for the flier's health. Airazor rarely ever smiled or laughed anymore, and when she did emerge from her self-imposed solitude it was only in the company of Dinobot and Blackarachnia. Over the last several months Optimus had begun to notice the three femmes grouping together more and more often whenever they were around each other. Whether any of them were aware of their new dynamic Optimus didn't know. All he knew for sure was that Dinobot had become the unofficial leader of the Axalon's female subgroup, and that Airazor had attached herself to the raptor as though Dinobot was some kind of rock on which she could anchor herself to in her time of grief.

The only thing that still seemed able to bring a weak smile of happiness onto the flier's face was Dinobot and Rattrap's son. It was as if Switchblade had become Airazor's only remaining source of joy in her bleak world of mourning. In the months since Tigatron's disappearance she'd attached herself to him as a protective adopted aunt. If ever Rattrap or Dinobot were unable to look after their son Airazor was always there, ready to jump at the chance to watch over the rambunctious sparkling for a few hours and temporarily drive away her loneliness with his boundless energy and indiscriminate affection. Although everyone on the crew encouraged her maternal interest towards her foster nephew, they'd all begun to worry how much longer it would be until even Switchblade wasn't enough to convince Airazor that life was still worth living in the wake of her loss…

"I must be going,' Dinobot said with a glance at the chronometer. "My patrol is to start soon." Gathering Switchblade to her she stood from the table. The sparkling squealed with delight from his perch in Dinobot's arms and kicked his tiny legs excitedly in the air. "Calm yourself," the warrioress said as she bent down to gather his toys up off the floor. "You squirm too much."

Whether Switchblade actually understood his mother or not, the sparkling quieted and cuddled closer to her with a soft chip of contentment. His head rested perfectly in the hollow of Dinobot's throat beneath her chin. Optimus involuntarily felt his spark melt inside him at the sight. The complete innocence and tender love the sparkling exuded from him like a physical aura could have softened the spark of even the hardest of bots. Despite an outwardly stern expression, Optimus saw Dinobot also soften under her son's affectionate display. Holding his tiny body close, the raptor ran a quick but possessive hand down the back of his head.

The sparkling had obviously inherited some of his father's manipulative charm, Optimus mused with a smirk. It would be interesting to see how he used that charm when he was old enough to understand the kind of sway he held over other people.

"Have a safe patrol, Dinobot," he said as the warrioress turned towards the door with her son held close.

Dinobot gave a quick grunt of acknowledgement.

"See you later, Switch," Optimus called after the two. The sparkling lifted his head off his mother's chest and chirped at the sound of his name.

As Dinobot and Switchblade disappeared out the door, Optimus looked back down at the chess piece the sparkling had been teething on only a few short minutes ago. Turning it over back and forth in his hand the transmetal gorilla let a sly smirk spread across his face.

"That little one," he mused out loud with a grin, "is going to break sparks one day..."

* * *

Rattrap groaned as he extracted himself from underneath one of the bridge's main computer consoles. The electrical system on one of the units had decided to finally give up the ghost and forced the spy to spend the last hour and a half rooting around its innards trying to find the burnt out circuit line that was causing the problem. He'd finally found it. But after spending so long crouched underneath the computer station his bad shoulder had begun to ache.

As Rattrap pulled himself to his pedes and straightened, his spinal joints made a series of painful sounding pops all the way down the length of his back.

"Oooooooou-ch…" he moaned and stiffly stretched his arms up over his head. "I'm gettin' too old fer dis."

Dropping his arms again, the spy reached up and massaged underneath the wheel rim of his bad shoulder. He had a feeling it was going to give him a lot of pain later on that night while he was trying to go to sleep.

_Stupid snake-tailed scorpion, _he sourly cursed. _You just wait 'til I see ya again in battle 'cause den I'm gonna get ya back fer dat cheap back shot ya got me with…_

Rattrap's angry musing was cut short by a soft electronic warble from the doorway of the bridge. Looking up, he smiled as his lover walked through the hatchway and straight up to him with their son perched high up against her chest.

"Hey, kiddo!" he called as the two came closer.

Switchblade looked around at the sound of his father's voice and released an audio-piercing squeal of delight. Chirping wildly and squirming in his mother's arms the sparkling reached out for his father with both hands.

"Yea, yea, glad ta see ya too, Switch," he said and eagerly reached out to take the chirping sparkling from his mother. "So how was yer game with da big ape?" Rattrap asked when he finally had Switchblade quieted and settled in the crook of one arm. "Ya win?"

Dinobot crossed her arms and shook her helm with a scowl. "Not really. We were forced to end our match in a draw."

"Eh, too bad," Rattrap shrugged, and turned his attention back to his son. "An' did you cause any problems while ya were watchin' yer mom play board games?" he asked in a playful voice. Switchblade chirped and warbled nonsensically in reply.

"He seems to be developing a love for loud, annoying sounds," Dinobot said.

"Dat's okay," Rattrap chuckled. "We like loud annoyin' sounds, don't we, Switch? Otherwise we wouldn't be able ta listen ta yer mom talk,' now would we?"

Dinobot sent the spy a scathing glare which Rattrap returned with a cheeky grin. Switchblade, meanwhile, chirped in childish innocence at his parents' barbed exchange.

"I must leave for patrol," Dinobot growled. "Will you be able to look after Switchblade until I return?"

"Yea, sure. No problem," Rattrap said and gently bounced their son in his arms. He ignored the twinge of pain that shot through his old laser wound. When playing with Switch the pain in his shoulder never seemed quite as bad as when it hurt any other time. "We'll try not ta burn down da base while yer away."

"See to it that you don't," Dinobot snorted and turned towards the lift. "If I am not back before dusk make sure Switchblade is refueled and laid down for the night by a decent hour. You let him stay up late the last time I was away on patrol and upset his sleep schedule for the next two solar cycles."

Rattrap rolled his optics. "I know how ta take care of da kid, Choppa'face. Power down already. I learned my lesson after dat fiasco. I'll make sure he's rechargin' before it's too late."

"And don't let Cheetor feed him any crystallized sucrose sticks like you did last time. I do not want to have to deal with an over-energized sparkling when I return."

"Ya sure ya don't want me ta go out on patrol fer ya an' you can stay here with Switch?" Rattrap asked with a raised optic ridge.

Mollified, Dinobot abruptly fell silence and turned towards the lift. "I'll be back," she murmured.

Watching his lover stride away, Rattrap suddenly got an idea. "Hey, Choppa'face, wait! Ya forgot something!"

Dinobot stopped and glanced back over her shoulder. "What is it?" she growled.

Rattrap strode up to her, grinning devilishly all the way. "Oh, I just forgot ta give ya a goodbye present."

"Which is?" Dinobot snarled with growing impatience.

"Just this," Rattrap smirked and drew his hand back to deliver a sharp but playful swat to the bottom of Dinobot's aft. The warrioress gasped in surprise. When she finally recovered her composure a second later she wheeled around to glare at her lover in utter outrage. Her optics blazed with fire. Fortunately for Rattrap he'd had the foresight to scurry to the other side of the bridge far outside her reach.

"You perverted, pestilence riddled vermin!"

Rattrap chuckled with delight. It'd been awhile since he'd pulled anything like that on the surly warrioress. Even if she killed him for what he'd done he figured he could go to his grave feeling like it'd been worth it just to have been able to see that look of startled surprise on Dinobot's face. "Just a lil something ta remember me by while yer out on patrol," he snickered. In his arms, Switchblade chirped uncertainly at the sudden tension coming from his mother's direction.

Dinobot glared at Rattrap, her dentals bared in a fearsome snarl. For a moment Rattrap wondered if she really was going to lunge at him and tear him limb from limb. But then with one last poisonous glare Dinobot abruptly turned on her heels and stalked towards the nearest lift. Punching the open button, the warrioress stepped inside and within seconds dropped out of sight.

On the other side of the bridge Rattrap couldn't stop a pleased grin from spreading across his face. "Good thing you were with me, Switch, or yer mom might've just gone ahead an' offlined me," he laughed. "Good thing too dat yer still too young fer me ta hafta watch myself with dat kind'ov stuff around ya yet."

In his arms, Switchblade's attention had already turned to other things. He playfully batted at the moveable edge of Rattrap's shoulder wheel.

"Com'on, kiddo. It's time fer dad ta take a break. He's earned it." Striding over to the nearest computer station, Rattrap dropped into the seat with relish and propped Switchblade up in his lap. His back still ached from the last few hours spent crouched underneath the computer consol. Switching on the screen, Rattrap pulled up his own personal files from the database and clicked on the first icon. "How 'bout I teach ya how ta play five card stud? Like I've always said: it's never too early ta learn how ta gamble. Just don't tell yer mom, kay?"

* * *

Dinobot stalked away from Axalon agitated and fast. Her teeth were still bared in an annoyed snarl. Despite her best attempt's to shake off the feeling she could still feel the phantom sting of her lover's hand against her hind quarters. Dinobot growled deep in the back of her throat. That perverted little mouse was going to pay for his impudence when she got back from patrol. Just because they were lovers didn't mean she that she would allow such a disrespectful breech on her personal space go unpunished. The rat had best be prepared for when she returned, because she was going to make sure that he learned his lesson for good…

In beast mode Dinobot made swift work of the open miles of grassland. Within half an hour she'd already put a dozen miles between her and the ship. Sector Lambda came within sight. Before long the land began to grow hilly and forested. Moving swiftly through the thickening maze of trees Dinobot started her patrol. For several hours she prowled the hills and forests, always on the alert for enemy attack. As the hours wore on with still no sign of a potential battle, the warrioress began to grow agitated. Since returning to active duty several months before she still had yet to have the opportunity to use her skills in battle. The Maximals had heard very little from Megatron over the last few months. Except for the occasional jamming tower that a team had to be sent out to destroy, the Predacons had been very quiet lately. Dinobot's instincts screamed that this was not a good sign. This lack of activity just meant that Megatron was biding his time and planning something very disagreeable…

Slowing to a stop beneath a shady stand of trees, Dinobot gave a reptilian snarl of annoyance. "I grow weary of this constant inactivity," she growled to herself. "My warrior skills are being wasted with nothing else to do but patrols and training! It almost makes me want to launch an attack against Megatron just to have something to do."

"Then perhaps I can be of assistance to you, sister," a voice suddenly called from Dinobot's left. "But I must remind you that sometimes you should be careful about what you wish for."

Spinning around on her heels while simultaneously transforming to her robot form in one smooth motion, Dinobot snarled at the sight of the one standing there. "Talon," she spat, her hatred palpable. She quickly drew her sword and aimed it towards her transmetal clone. The transmetal femme stood only several dozen feet away in her skeletal raptor form. Dinobot forced down a momentary surge of panic. How had Talon snuck up on her like that? Again! It was almost as if she'd come online with a built in cloaking device. Perhaps it was due to her artificial spark that she couldn't detect her approach. In any case, now was not the time to contemplate her clone's stealth abilities. If Talon was here then there was a very high probability that Megatron or someone else was with her. "What are you doing here?" Dinobot snarled as she instinctively sunk into a battle stance.

Talon grinned, the transmetal plates of her raptor face twisted back from her fangs in a fearsome expression. "I was actually just on my way to see you, sister. You see, Megatron's decided he doesn't feel like waiting any longer for that second gold disk. He wants it, and intends to take it even if he has to dig it from the burning wreckage of the Maximals' star ship. It's almost a shame that I met you out here instead of outside the Axalon. For that is where the real battle is about to take place."

"What are you talking about?" Dinobot snarled. She made sure not to let the flash of fear she felt at this proclamation show on her face. "Is Megatron planning an attack on the Axalon?"

"Correct," Talon smirked. "But as I said, I just happened to detect your energy signal on my way there. Lord Megatron has ordered that the Maximal ship be attacked from several different directions with myself coming from the east. I don't think he will punish me though if I am a few minutes late if I dispose of you permanently now. You have a very bad habit of ruining Lord Megatron's plans."

"You are more than welcome to try and terminate me," Dinobot spat. "But let me assure you that it will not be me whose body parts will be left to rust in this forest after our battle is through."

"I could easily destroy you," Talon growled, snapping her fangs at Dinobot. "Our first fight together was proof enough of that. That wound you dealt me during out last fight was merely a fluke. In any case, it doesn't matter. I do not have very much time today to play with you. Lord Megatron is expecting my arrival. So to save each of us a bloody fight that will only end with me winning, let me just skip straight to the end and claim my victory now with the help of some outside forces." Tipping her head back, Talon gave a loud, multi-tonal roar.

From off to Dinobot's side a ghostly white figure suddenly appeared from between two tree, gently bobbing its head with each footstep it took. Two blood-red eyes stared at her from the shadowy gloom of the forest. A dangerous hiss rattled the creature's vocal cords while two sets of razor-sharp talons impatiently flexed against the mossy ground.

For a moment the warrioress could only stare. "A velociraptor?" she murmured. "How is this possible? Raptors have been extinct on this planet for the last several thousand years."

Talon gave a nasty chuckle. "You are correct, dear sister. But Lord Megatron has decided to supplement his forces with cloned duplicates of our beast mode species - enhanced with transmetal technology, of course."

"You seriously think a single cyber-raptor is enough to defeat me?" Dinobot sneered. "I assure you it is going to take much more than a cloned dinosaur to kill me."

"Oh, I know you're much harder to kill than you appear," Talon grinned. "I will be the first to admit that Lord Megatron chose an exceedingly strong femme to use as my genetic originator. That's why Lord Megatron had half a dozen cyber-raptors made to kill you."

Before Dinobot could move to defend herself there suddenly came the sound of something large crashing through the forest undergrowth immediately to her right. Spinning towards it - her sword raised to fend off an attack - Dinobot was just able to recognize the pale gray outline of a second cyber-raptor springing out from behind a fern before it brutally body slammed her to the ground. Dinobot quickly rolled back up to her feet, staggering slightly from the blow just in time to dodge the creature's snapping jaws. From all around her Dinobot heard the sound of more creatures emerging from the forest, all of them converging in a tight circle around her. Within seconds Dinobot was surrounded by six transmetal-infused velociraptors.

Dinobot warily eyed the ring of raptors, her body crouched low to the ground. She held her sword in a defensive position. Despite all her years of warrior training even Dinobot was not so naively proud to think that this was going to be an easy battle. Outnumbered and with no hope of calling for backup, this fight was no one else's but her own.

"My dear sister, unfortunately I must take my leave of you now," Talon called from the other side of the ring of velociraptors. "I sadly cannot waste anymore time to stay and watch your pathetic last stand. I am needed in battle. I will pass on your final regards to your Maximal lover though. Don't fear. He will be joining you in the Matrix _very_ soon."

Then with nothing more than a condescending laugh of assured victory, the transmetal femme turned and disappeared into the forest. Left behind in the snarling ring of raptors, Dinobot grit her teeth in fury.

"I will not accept this as my warrior's death," she spat, sinking lower into her battle stance. "I will _not_ go willingly into the halls of Vallhalla like this! This is not how I will meet my end! Come! Attack me if you dare!" she screamed at the ring of velociraptors. "But know this! It will not be me who shall taste the bitterness of defeat today!"

As though accepting the warrioress's challenge one of the cyber-raptors to her right snapped its jaws and with an audio-piercing screech leapt at her, its sharpened toe claws extended and ready to rip into the metallic flesh of its prey…

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Oh, and since it's doubtful I'll get another update out before: Happy early Turkey Day!


	19. Hostage Part I

**Chapter Nineteen: Hostage Part I**

The cyber-raptor moved like lightning. Dinobot barely had time to swing her blade up in time to deflect the creature's deadly claws before they could tear her to shreds. Sparks flew between the two pieces of sharpened metal as they collided. The velociraptor screamed in outrage as it was batted to the side. Its weight, however, was more than the warrioress was expecting and she was body slammed to the ground beneath it. A set of jaws lined with razor-sharp teeth snapped close mere inches from Dinobot's face. The cyber-raptor's breath was hot and ripe, filling her olfactory sensors with the smell of two-week-old rotting meat. Fighting back an involuntary gag of revulsion, she turned her face up towards the cyber-raptor and released an angry flurry of optic-laser fire straight up into its open mouth. The cyber-raptor reared backwards from her with a terrifying howl. Another blast of laserfire quickly cut the transmetal creature's electronic squeals short. By the time Dinobot finally cut off power to her optic lasers the raptor collapsed backwards to the ground in a jumbled heap - the place where its head had once been nothing more than a charred, sparking stump.

Not allowing herself even a moment to let herself recover from the attack, Dinobot rolled back to her feet with feral grace. Her facial plates were set into a fearsome mask of determination. She was _not_ going to admit defeat without a fight.

The other cyber-raptors seemed momentarily stunned by the quick deactivation of their pack member. But then with a chorus of angry snarls, the other five velociraptors attacked. With a coordinated grace Dinobot had seen in only a few other predator species thus far on the planet, two raptors lunged at her from either side. They moved in perfect tandem, as if they were connected by some kind of psychic neural link.

Dinobot threw herself to the side out of the raptors' path. She felt one set of claws pass disturbingly close to her as she twisted out from between the two. With suddenly nothing there in between them the two cyber-raptors met head-on in a painful sounding crunch of metal and techno-infused flesh. Their outraged roars echoed through the surrounding forest into the distance. Hissing at each other as they extricated their limbs from around each other, the two raptors rounded on Dinobot.

With that move the warrioress had been able to break free of the ring of raptors and into open fighting space. The five raptors now faced her as a single line, snarling and snapping their teeth. Dinobot sunk into a fighting stance. Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her sword. If she could keep them all in front of her she might be able to save herself from having to fend off a multi-fronted attack. To lose that advantage might mean her defeat.

"Come on," she spat, glaring challengingly.

The cyber-raptor to her far left screeched. Instinctively the warrioress turned towards it, expecting an attack from that direction. She immediately realized her error when half a second later a burst of laserfire caught her in the side from one of the other cyber-raptors on the other end of the hunting line.

Dinobot roared in startled pain, her one hand dropping to clutch at the charred circle of armored plating along her rib struts. She hadn't been expecting these cyber-raptors to have laser optics like her own battle mod. Megatron must have wanted to make a statement by adding them to his genetic monsters. Her superstructure was heat-pitted and singed, but it did not appear like the blast had reached her protoform. That didn't mean the injury was any less painful though. Ignoring the fiery burn of pain she turned her attention back to the line of cyber-raptors just in time to dodge another round of laserfire. She returned a quick round of laserfire herself which forced the line of raptors to scatter to either side, and ducked behind a nearby tree. Multiple streaks of bright red laserfire exploded against the other side of her makeshift cover. Bits of charred bark and wood chips flew through the air all around her. Dinobot hunkered low, trying to assess her situation.

She was pinned. The pack of cyber-raptors had fanned out amongst the trees and taken cover, their firepower concentrated on her position from several different angles. The warrioress angrily grit her teeth. This was quickly spiraling out of control. She had to do something to equal the playing field before she was backed into a corner and simply overwhelmed by their numbers.

_I will _not_ go willingly into the Void like that!_ her inner warrior howled in disgust. _This is not how I will meet my end!_

Carefully scouting around the side of the tree trunk she'd hidden behind she released an angry barrage of laserfire from her optics. The cyber-raptors all ducked away out of sight, allowing Dinobot to slip out from behind her cover and charge the nearest velociraptor with a fearsome battle cry. The transmetal creature didn't even have time to make any kind of sound before it was permanently silenced by the warrioress's two foot long blade plunging into its side. With a brutal twist of her wrist Dinobot wrenched her sword upwards and tore it free from the cyber-raptor through its spine. The creature collapsed to the ground, its limbs twitching in spasmodic little jerks. Between the eviscerated remains of its abdomen the raptor's internal circuits shorted and sparked. With a gurgled snarl the raptor's head twisted backwards over its back in its final death throes and finally lay still.

Cyber-fluid dripped down the length of Dinobot's sword onto her hand. She ignored the warm stickiness. Four more raptors still remained.

Crouching low, the warrioress edged around the corner of the tree. About fifteen feet to her left she spotted another velociraptor between the trees. Its pale gray form quickly ducked away out of sight. Clutching her sword tight, Dinobot swung out from behind the tree and rushed the spot she'd just seen the raptor disappear. Several bursts of laserfire from a few of the other raptors peppered the ground behind her as she ran but did not come anywhere close to hitting her.

Dinobot skid around the tree, her sword raised to deliver a killing blow the same way she'd done to the other raptor, only to find the spot empty. There was no sign of the cyber-raptor anywhere.

Dinobot looked around in confusion. "Where-?" she began, but was cut off by the weight of an extinct six-hundred-pound predator slamming into her back. The warrioress was sent flying off her pedes by the blow and hit the ground hard. Fiery pain exploded through her back as two eight-inch long claws of Cybertronian-alloy infused bone sunk into the protomatter of her shoulder and back struts. Dinobot screamed in both pain and rage and rolled to the side, throwing the raptor off her back. Ignoring the streams of mech-fluid pouring down her back she staggered to her feet and shakily raised her sword again in a defensive pose.

By now the other three raptors had converged on their pack member's position and reformed their hunting ring around the warrioress. Dinobot warily eyed the four creatures over the rotating sections of her blade. If they all attacked her at once there was no way she'd be able to fight them all off. Injured the way she was, she was going to have to rely more on strategy than brute strength now to survive.

Luckily for the warrioress, the raptors didn't all attack at once. Instead, the creature that'd leapt on her - its foot talons coated thick with Dinobot's mech-fluid - gave a fearsome roar and lunged at her, snapping its jaws menacingly. Dinobot batted the creature's face away from her with the side of her sword. The edge of one of the sword's sectioned blades caught the creature in the eye and sunk into the delicate micro-lens of its orbital socket. The cyber-raptor reared backwards and shrieked its pain to the sky. Clawing at its eye as though trying to swat some kind of invisible attacker away it staggered backwards from the warrioress. Dinobot activated her optic lasers and sent a quick burst of green energy exploding against the cyber-raptor's side, driving it back further behind the edge of its pack mates' hunting ring.

Behind her one of the other cyber-raptors gave an angry screech and lunged at her, claws extended and razor-lined jaws open. Dinobot spun in place and shot off another round of laserfire. The blasts caught the creature just as it was about to leap at her and knocked it backwards off its taloned feet. Howling a fearsome battle cry the warrioress lunged at the downed beast and sunk her blade deep into the middle of its chest. The cyber-raptor screeched pitifully before falling abruptly silent and sagging motionless to the ground. Wrenching her fluid-stained blade from the creature, Dinobot rounded back towards the other two remaining raptors. The third one with the injured eye had retreated half a dozen paces and stood huddled near a tree. Gelatinous fluid dripped down the side of its face from its mutilated optical array. Although injured and no longer in any condition to fight, it glared at Dinobot malevolently through its one remaining eye.

Dinobot snarled down the two remaining velociraptors, her teeth bared and body language threatening. She made sure to let it show that she was ready to fend off any other attack they may try to make against her.

The two cyber-raptors eyed her with intelligent reptilian eyes. Dinobot could almost see the neural lines firing in the back of their heads as the creatures calculated their chances of success if they tried to attack her again. Finally, with a quick exchange of bird-like hoots, the velociraptors abruptly turned and darted away between the trees. The third raptor with the injured eyes stayed a moment longer - glaring at her as though unwilling to leave its prey still alive - before turning to follow its two pack mates into the forest. Within seconds the three vanished from sight.

Dinobot remained riveted in place. For several minutes she stood there straining her audios for any sound of moment. She wasn't about to relax and allow herself to believe this wasn't some kind of hunting trick to make her lower her guard. As the minutes crawled by though and she still saw and heard no sign of the pack's return the warrioress finally let herself relax.

Pain throbbed down the length of her back from where the one raptor had jumped on her. She dared not try to reach behind her to inspect the damage for fear of tearing her wounds open even more. Although extremely painful Dinobot didn't think it was a serious injury. She would need time in the CR chamber to repair the damage, yes, but she'd suffered much worse injuries than this before and fought on through the pain. Right now she had more important things to worry about than minor flesh wounds. She had to contact base and warn her Maximal comrades about Megatron's attack.

She reached up to the side of her helm and tapped her comm-link line open. "Dinobot to base. Come in. Over," she called. Her voice sounded unnaturally loud in the surrounding silence of the forest. A thick wall of static was all that answered her. "Dinobot to base. Respond! Over." The static remained unbroken.

"Slag," she cursed, and angrily switched off the link. Megatron must have constructed a jamming tower somewhere nearby unbeknownst to the Maximals, making communications anywhere in the vicinity impossible. "Beast-mode!" Dinobot cried and in a flurry of shifting limbs transformed. She nearly screamed as the claw wounds down her back plating were wrenched apart and shifted down against either side of her animal form's hips. Mech-fluid seeped from the edges of torn protomatter. The fiery sting of the claw marks seemed to radiate down deep into her protomatter and down the lengths of her thighs. Gritting her teeth together to focus her attention, the warrioress turned herself due west and took off at a run. Using every bit of speed available to her in her raptor form, she ignored the throbbing pain on either side of her hips as she wove a serpentine path through the maze of trees.

She had to hurry and warn the others back at base. There was no saying when Megatron was going to launch his attack or if the Maximals would even detect his approach before they were taken by surprise. She might already be too late.

She could only hope that whenever she did reach base that her warrior skills would still be of some use to her comrades…

* * *

"… an' den ya move dis card here," Rattrap explained as he shifted his ace of hearts onto the stack of cards on the right-hand side of the computer screen. "And…"

_You won!_ a message box appeared in the middle of the screen complete with a several little bursts of digital fireworks on either side of it. In Rattrap's lap Switchblade squealed excitedly at the shifting display of colors and burst of triumphant music.

"Heh. Ya like dat, kiddo?" Rattrap chuckled as the sparkling reached for the computer screen to try and touch one of the pixelated fireworks. "Should we try again? Maybe some Omnicom solitaire next?"

"I'd be careful if I were you, Rattrap," Rhinox said from the computer station to his right. "I somehow doubt Dinobot's going to take gladly to the idea of you teaching your son how to play card games."

Rattrap leveled a slightly annoyed look at his friend. "Eh, lighten up, will ya? It's not like it's hurtin' anyone. Switch's too young ta understand any of dis. He just likes lookin' at da colors an' movin' pictures. It's a win-win situation. Switch gets entertained an' daddy get half an hour of free time."

Beside him, Rhinox frowned, unconvinced. "I still say you should be careful about Dinobot finding out. I don't think she'd care how much of a win-win situation it is; she'd rip you apart."

"Yea, like ya hadta tell me dat," Rattrap snorted darkly. "Anyway, I'm way ahead 'a ya. I have da ship's scanners rigged ta send me a personal ping whenever Lizard Lips comes back from patrol an' gets within three hundred yards of da ship - givin' me just enough time ta close down any game I'm playin' an' bring up a harmless lookin' grid map ta pretend ta monitor. Smart, eh?"

Rhinox stared at him with an unimpressed look. "She's going to catch you one of these days and tear you limb from limb. And when that day comes don't expect me to jump in to save you."

"Always da pessimist," the spy huffed. Switchblade warbled happily in his lap. Rattrap glanced down at him and gently bounced his son on his knee which made the sparkling chirrup louder. "Don't listen to anything dat big disgruntled mech over der says, Switch. He's just got something nasty shoved up his tailpipe ta-day."

Although Rattrap was sure the sparkling didn't actually understand anything he was saying, Switchblade twittered wildly in response to his father's playful tone. Beside them, Rhinox scowled.

"Limb from limb," Rhinox reminded him. "And I won't stop her."

"It just always gets me so teary-eyed every time I hear ya talk 'bout how much our friendship means ta ya," Rattrap sobbed in a fake voice.

Unfortunately, the engineer didn't have any chance to throw back a retort before he was cut off by the ship's alarm system flaring to life. Alarms wailed. Lights flashed. Computer screens automatically brought up topographical maps of the ship's immediate vicinity.

"Whoa, wha' da heck!" Rattrap yelled over the wailing alarms. He began typing in command codes to bring up the ship's defense grid on screen. Switchblade chirped frightenedly in his lap and huddled closer to his father's chest. Rattrap held him close with one hand while he continued to type with the other.

By now others had begun to arrive on bridge. Cheetor, Blackarachnia, Silverbolt and Airazor all gathered in the middle of the room near the holo-table. Optimus was not far behind them. "What's happening?" he called as he ducked through the doorway and hurried to the nearest computer station, which happened to be Rhinox's.

"Predacons," Rhinox replied over the wail of alarms. "And moving in fast!" He pounded madly at the keyboard and brought up an aerial image of the Axalon and it's surrounding topography. A number of blinking red dots were approaching from all directions. Rattrap counted at least five with two more coming in fast from the north and south - most likely Terrorsaur and Waspinator by their speed. "They have the ship completely surrounded," the engineer went on. "The ship's perimeter defenses have already been triggered and started firing counterattacks, but its having trouble targeting so many enemy combatants."

As though to emphasize the seriousness of their situation a series of explosions pounded the ship's outer hull. The Axalon shuddered with force of their impacts. Rattrap instinctively clutched his son closer. The sparkling was trembling against his superstructure.

"This isn't good," Optimus muttered. "Who knows what Megatron's after or what he's trying to accomplish from this attack. In any case he's forcing us to take a stand. Our defenses aren't going to be able to withstand an attack from so many different directions for long. We're going to have to go out there and take the fight to Megatron ourselves."

Turning to face the others, the transmetal gorilla glanced at each of them in turn. "Silverbolt, I want you to take the air space directly above the ship and deal with Terrorsaur and Waspinator and any other fliers that might try to attack from the air. Blackarachnia, defend the north side of the ship. Cheetor, the west. Airazor, the south. Rhinox, you and I will take the east. If Megatron's going to lead a charge that's where he'll probably going to try and launch it from."

"Wha' 'bout me?" Rattrap said.

Optimus glanced back over his shoulder. "Stay here with Switch and defend the ship. I need someone onboard to monitor Sentinel. If things starts to turn ugly, switch Sentinel's auto-guns to manual and open fire."

"Yea, okay, sure," Rattrap murmured in a daze from the speed of which everything was swiftly going to the Pit. "I can do dat."

Optimus turned back to the others. "Okay, Maximals, move out! Your first priority is to keep any Predacons from reaching this ship. Let's go!"

Within moments everyone had disappeared through the lifts, leaving Rattrap alone with his infant son. Outside, the sound of rapid-action gunfire, exploding missiles and laser blasts echoed through the Axalon's thick sides. Every few minutes Rattrap would feel another tremor go through the ship from a rocket or grenade sneaking past their defenses.

"Oh man, this ain't good," he moaned as he pulled up a report of the ship's shield power and remaining defensive resources. Shield levels were just beginning to drop below sixty percent, and falling rapidly. Automated defenses were running low on ammo. Rattrap counted only several hundred rounds left for each perimeter gun turret, which translated to less than five more minutes of continuous fire power. If he didn't think of something soon they were going to be overrun with Predacons within the next ten minutes. "Man, where's Choppa'face when ya need her? She's missin' out on all da action. Of all da days fer her ta leave base on a long range mission…"

If only the warrioress was here, Rattrap thought as he pounded at the keyboard. She would have already dispatched three of her former crewmates by now while the rest of them kicked back and watched as Megatron screamed for retreat. Despite the gravity of the situation he couldn't stop a thin smile from spreading across his face at the mental image. Whatever his lover's flaws might be, having the former Predacon warrioress on their side definitely had its advantages.

_Not so much though when she'd conveniently AWOL an' refusing ta answer her comm-link,_ Rattrap snorted. From what he could tell from the security feeds Optimus and the others were getting hammered out there. The pitch of battle sounded like the Second Great War was breaking loose directly below the Axalon's main bridge.

Frantically hacking into the ship's system network Rattrap was able to divert twenty more percent of the Axalon's reserve power to its shield drives. "Dat should give us a lil more time," he murmured and refreshed the information on the ship's perimeter defenses. Ammunition was almost out. They probably only had a few more minutes before they were all up the proverbial asteroid belt without a hyper-drive.

In Rattrap's lap, Switchblade warbled fearfully as another explosion rocked the ship and sent off a new set of alarms. His tiny protoform was curled tight against Rattrap.

"Hey, bud, it's alright," Rattrap said in the most reassuring voice he could muster and hugged the shivering sparking close. "Don't worry, kiddo. Dad's not gonna let anything happen ta ya, kay?"

"You shouldn't make promises you cannot keep, vermin," a voice said behind him.

Startled, the spy jolted in his seat and spun around. Standing no more than several feet behind him stood what at first glance was none other than Dinobot. But as the immediate shock faded, horror replaced it at the realization that the femme standing there was not his lover as he originally thought but really her transmetal clone, Talon.

"How da heck did you get onboard?" Unconsciously, Rattrap clutched Switchblade closer, almost crushing his tiny body against him.

The transmetal femme stared down at him with a decidedly evil grin. The bridge's flashing red lights gave her already malevolent appearance an even more demonic look. "Your sensors are useless against me. They cannot detect me because of my artificial spark. Even if your defenses weren't so pathetically weak I am practically invisible to them. You never even stood a chance when Megatron ordered me to infiltrate this poor excuse for a warship and take command of it."

Moving completely on instinct, Rattrap's hand flew for his blaster. Talon was faster than he anticipated though and viciously batted the weapon out of his hand before he could even press his finger to the trigger. The gun flew through the air, hit the ground with a metallic clatter and skid out of sight beneath one of the other computer stations.

Switchblade gave a shrill cry of fear in Rattrap's arms and huddled deeper in his father's arms. Terror radiated off him in almost palpable waves. Rattrap could feel every miniature tremor of fear coursing through his son's small frame.

Talon glanced down at Switch as if only now noticing the sparkling's presence. "So this is my sister's half-breed progeny," she sneered in open disdain. "He is puny. If he had come online as a pure-sparked Predacon back on Cybertron he would have been immediately discarded. No wonder you Maximals are so weak if this is the kind of substandard genetics you allow to survive."

"Well thank Primus he ain't a Predacon then," Rattrap hissed back up at her. "I'd hate ta see wha' kinda twisted monster you'd have if you ever spark-bore."

Talon gave a vicious snarl and lunged at Rattrap. The spy didn't even have time to cringe before the back of Talon's hand smashed against the side of his helm and sent him crashing out of his chair to the ground. Pain exploded through Rattrap's bad shoulder and head as he hit the floor. Switchblade squealed in terror in his arms. Having landed on his back, Rattrap instinctively curled around the small sparkling in his arms, shielding him with his larger frame.

Talon was instantly on him, kicking the spy onto his back and pinning him down with a foot in the middle of his shoulder. Rattrap desperately clutched his son. The sparkling screamed and clung to his father's superstructure as best he could with his little hands.

"Understand this, rodent," Talon snarled as she leaned down to stare into Rattrap's optics. "Your bastard offspring's life now rests in my hands. You would do well to show me some respect."

It was only then that the full weight of everything came crashing down on Rattrap and he truly realized just how much danger his son was in. It was strange that not even a single thought about his own safety crossed his processor. All he could think about was the tiny sparkling in his arms. Without his weapon and pinned to the floor the way he was he was helpless. A wave of near overwhelming terror washed over him. His spark constricted into a tiny ball of panic in the middle of his chest.

"Don't hurt my kid," he begged. "He's got nothin' ta do with dis. He's not a part of dis war."

"Fool," Talon spat. "He became a part of this war as soon as he took his first intake."

Rattrap stared up at her in mute horror.

Without another word, the transmetal femme cocked one fist up over her shoulder and brought it slamming down into Rattrap's face. Pain exploded through his cranial unit as if he'd just taken a crowbar to the side of the head. He teetered on the cusp of unconsciousness for a moment of endless eternity. Somewhere - it sounded like it was coming from the other end of a long tunnel a hundred miles away - he heard his son's plaintive chirps. The sparkling sounded utterly terrified. Rattrap struggled to regain control of his reeling senses, but a fuzzy ring of darkness had appeared around the edges of his visual readout. He tried to drive it back with a feeble shake of his head which only seemed to make it worse.

"S…witch…" he mumbled.

The last thing he heard before the darkness completely closed around him and swallowed him in its inky black embrace was the sound of his son's frightened chips frantically calling out for him. And then, silence…

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	20. Hostage Part II

_Anodythe_, your guess last chapter is so close you're boiling!

**Chapter Twenty: Hostage Part II**

Dinobot's feet barely even seemed to touch the ground as she raced across the barren grasslands. She had pushed herself to the limits and had finally crossed the border into Maximal territory several minutes ago. The Axalon was little more than several miles ahead on the other side of a large rock formation. Dinobot pushed even more effort into her legs. By her estimations Talon had at least half an hour's head start on her. More than likely the transmetal femme had already reached the Axalon.

The warrioress grit her teeth and growled under her breath. She had to hurry. If what Talon had said was true than Megatron was about to launch a massive attack against the Maximals. If there was to be a battle than she had to be there. Her Maximal comrades were in danger and needed her to help man the lines.

As the raptor crested the top of a small hill she caught sight of the Axalon in the distance. She almost stopped short in shock at what she saw.

She hadn't missed the battle. It was still going on, and from what Dinobot could tell from a distance was one of the most violent clashes she'd seen thus far in the entire course of the Beast Wars. A literal siege was being laid on the Axalon. Rockets whistled through the air. Bombs exploded in brilliant plumes of flames while machinegun fire created a continuous drone of noise in the background. The underside of the Maximals' starship looked like the inside of a nightclub from the reflection of numerous laser beams slicing through the air below it. One section of the Axalon's side had been ripped open by an explosion. Clouds of billowing black smoke poured out of it through the torn remains of its hull.

Dinobot quickly assessed the battlefield. The Maximals were spread out in different positions all around the ship. Each and every one of them was engaged with at least one Predacon. Silverbolt was defending the airspace immediately above the Axalon from both Terrorsaur and Waspinator, but was struggling to keep both fliers from getting close enough to the ship to attack. Blackarachnia had ducked behind a small pile of rocks on the Axalon's north side to avoid a plume of flames from Inferno, while to the south Airazor was trapped in an intense standoff with Quickstrike. Laserfire zipped back and forth between the two so fast Dinobot couldn't tell for certain who had the upper hand. Near the front of the ship Optimus, Rhinox and Cheetor were hunkered down in a defensive position near one of the ship's landing struts. Several dozen feet away from them was Megatron, Tarantulas and another mech Dinobot had never seen before clustered in their own little group behind a rock formation. The most vicious fighting seemed to be concentrated in that area.

Dinobot scanned the area again. She didn't see Talon anywhere. Had she somehow beaten her back? She hadn't seen Talon anywhere on the way here, though. And even pushing herself as hard as she had she didn't think she was quick enough to have somehow overtaken her clone given the lead Talon had had on her coming out of the forest. No, Talon was somewhere on the battlefield. She could feel it. Perhaps she was hiding somewhere so she could spring into the fray when the Maximals were least expecting it and shift the tide of battle in the Predacons' favor. In any case, Dinobot was going to keep an optic out for her. She wasn't going to be taken by surprise again by her transmetal clone.

As Dinobot transformed with a quick command, she did one more unconscious sweep of the battlefield with her optics. Despite her best attempts to find him, she saw no sign of her lover anywhere. Whether that was because Rattrap wasn't there or he was just somewhere out of sight, Dinobot didn't know.

_Optimus probably left him onboard to monitor Sentinel and the other ship's defenses_, Dinobot told herself. Yes. That was it. It made perfect sense. Optimus wouldn't have left the ship undefended. Although much of the Axalon's defenses were automated, Sentinel worked best when it was manned so that adjustments could be made to its settings and any problems diagnosed and manually bypassed. Nor would Optimus have made Rattrap leave Switchblade unattended while enemy combatants were trying to overrun their defenses. Without realizing it Dinobot felt the tiny knot of nervous anxiety that'd formed inside her relax. Sure of her son and lover's safety, the warrioress gripped her sword and with a fearsome battle cry charged into the fray.

Bullets and laserfire ripped the air. Dodging a stray plume of fire from Inferno's direction, Dinobot cut across the battlefield towards the front of the ship where her comrades were fending off Megatron and his two lackeys. She came up on the Predacons' left flank. When she came within the last few dozen feet of them she released a barrage of laserfire on them from her optic lasers. Megatron and the other two cried out in surprise and ducked behind a small formation of rocks.

"Dinobot!" Optimus cried from the other side of the war zone. "Thank Primus! You are most certainly a sight for sore eyes."

"Talk about timing," Cheetor seconded with a relieved laugh. "We were getting really hammered here."

Although he didn't say anything, Dinobot could see the relief on Rhinox's face at her unexpected arrival. Things must have been getting very desperate if the backup of only a single bot brought so much relief.

"My apologies for my tardiness," she called over the sound of distant explosions and gunfire. "I was temporarily delayed by Talon before I was about to make my way here."

By now, Megatron, Tarantulas and the other mech had recovered from Dinobot's attack and were now cautiously peeking around the sides of their cover.

"So I see you were able to escape Talon's pack of cyber-raptors," Megatron said with a scowl as he stood up from behind the low rock wall. "Such a shame. She commed me earlier and said that she was certain of your demise."

Dinobot sunk into a battle stance and growled. "You should know by now that I am incapable of being killed by something as pathetic as genetically altered velociraptors. I permanently deactivated half of them before sending the other three scurrying into the woods."

Megatron scowled but didn't rise to her taunt. "Perhaps you surviving will actually work to my advantage," he mused with a calculating look in his optics. "I want that second gold disk. You stole it from me and I want it back."

"I no longer possess it," Dinobot spat. "I gave it to Optimus to safeguard months ago."

"It is in a secured location locked under a secret access code only I know," Optimus said from behind the Axalon's landing strut.

Megatron scowled and appeared as though he was about to say something when he abruptly froze. He stood there for a moment of silence, his head cocked slightly to the side as if listening to a private comm-link message. A sly grin slowly spread across his face. The warlord looked back at Dinobot. "Tell me, Dinobot, where is your Maximal progeny? It has been several months now since that noxious smelling spy told us your happy news. The child must be what, four, five months old now? I would like to see what a sparkling of mixed lineages looks like."

Dinobot tensed, not liking the direction their confrontation had suddenly veered. Quickly, she fixed her facial plates into a neutrally cold expression. "It was stillborn," she snarled. "Apparently Predacons and Maximals are not meant to breed with each other."

The transmetal warlord chuckled. "How very interesting it is that you would say that right after I ordered Talon to infiltrate your ship and shut down your defenses and she just so happened to come across a very unexpected surprise…"

Dinobot's spark began to pulse faster with mounting dread. She didn't like what Megatron was insinuating. Nor did she like the fact that Talon was indeed on the battlefield like she suspected and had somehow managed to get onboard the Axalon where her infant son was hidden. A thin film of condensation began to form across the warrioress's brow.

There was a sudden hiss of hydraulics being activated from the underbelly of the ship's front section. As she, Optimus, Cheetor and Rhinox whirled around one of the Axalon's two lifts separated itself from the ship's hull and slowly descended to the ground. The lift finally shuddered to a stop. A tall figure stood on the platform, the sharpened edges of her finger blades flashing in the light of distant laserfire.

Dinobot felt her mech-fluid run cold. Every diode in her body locked with horror at the sight she saw. Her spark constricting painfully in the middle of her chest.

"Oh, Primus, no," Rhinox swore under his breath. Optimus and Cheetor stared in silent horror. Behind them, Megatron grinned.

Talon returned the warrioress's horrified gaze with an evil smirk. In her arms she held Dinobot and Rattrap's son, Switchblade, tightly against her breastplate. One of Talon's razor-sharp finger blades was pressed to the side of the sparkling's neck. Even from a distance, Dinobot could see the glint of silvery mech-fluid smeared across her son's neck where the sharpened edge of Talon's blade sunk into his protoform. The sparkling's arms were pinned down against his sides by Talon's arm while his legs frantically kicked the air. His terrified squeals echoed loudly across battlefield.

Dinobot froze. "Switchblade!" Unconsciously she came out of her battle stance and lowered her sword.

At the sound of his mother's voice the sparkling's shrill chirps became keening and desperate. His facial plates were scrunched together in an expression of terrified pain. Dinobot could focus on nothing else but her son. His distressed cries were like physical stabs of pain to her spark. She knew those cries. Although shrill and higher pitched than usual, they were the same tone Switchblade used whenever he wanted her to come to him or pick him up. Instinctively she started towards them, intent on snatching her progeny away from her clone and ripping the other femme apart for having dared touch her offspring.

"Do not move or I will order Talon to remove that sparkling's head from its shoulders," Megatron growled. The sound of his fusion cannon warming up emphasized his order. Tarantulas and the other mech with them followed Megatron's lead and centered the warrioress in their sites.

Dinobot froze, although her optics remained locked on Talon and the tiny sparkling in her arms.

"Drop your sword," Megatron ordered.

Dinobot didn't move. Her attention was focused to nothing else but her son.

"Do it!" Talon snarled, pressing her finger harder against Switchblade's throat. The sparkling squealed in terror. "Do not make Lord Megatron order you again!"

Growling under her breath, Dinobot let her sword slip from her fingers and hit the ground with a dull thud.

"The rest of you Maximals as well," Megatron yelled. "Drop your weapons or I will have Talon deactivate that sparkling."

Out of the corner of her optic Dinobot saw Optimus, Cheetor and Rhinox all throw their weapons to the ground.

Pinning Optimus with a predatory grin, Megatron called, "Now order your men to stand down."

Optimus hesitated a moment. But then with a quick glance at the keening sparkling in Talon's arms he tuned his comm-link to an open wavelength. "Maximals, this is Optimus Primal. I am ordering everyone to immediately stand down. I repeat: stand down. Megatron has taken Switchblade hostage."

Almost instantly the sounds of battle around the ship died away and were replaced by heavy silence. The only thing to break the stillness was the crackle of distant fires - remnants of the vicious battle that just ended.

"Yes!" Megatron crooned in triumph. "Victory is ours!" Together he, Tarantulas and the third mech emerged from their cover and approached the unarmed group of Maximals. Their weapons remained carefully trained on them.

"Release my son," Dinobot snarled as the Predacon warlord and his followers came close. "He has no part in this battle. Have you no sense of honor?"

"Honor has no place on the battlefield," Megatron coldly replied. Tarantulas and the other mech moved forward and herded Optimus, Cheetor and Rhinox into a tight circle and forced them to their knees with their hands above their hands.

Their prisoners now secured, Megatron strode up to Talon and smiled. "You've pleased me very much, Talon. You will be rewarded when we return to base."

"Thank you, my lord," the transmetal femme said, drinking in the warlord's praise.

In Talon's arms Switchblade squirmed and released a keening chirrup. Dinobot had to physically restrain herself not to recklessly leap at them in answer to her son's desperate cries. Every neural sensor in her body screamed at her to wrestle him away from Talon and protect him.

"How strange…" Megatron mused as he stepped closer to inspect the sparkling. "You said the sparkling was stillborn. I must say, Dinobot, your progeny looks very much alive to me." Leaning closer he reached out and grasped the sparkling's face between his forefingers and forcefully tilted Switchblade's head back to look at him. "I can see he's taken after his Predacon side more. If he's inherited even half of his mother's natural talent for battle, perhaps I should take him as my future apprentice."

"Don't you dare touch him, you vile monster!" Dinobot screeched, her hands clenched into fists. If she had had any heckles they would have been standing straight up on her neck by now. She was barely able to stop herself from lunging at Megatron and clawing at him with her bare hands. The sound of the unknown Predacon rounding a chamber in his gun was enough to stop Dinobot from losing all sense of control.

'My, my, my, Dinobot," Megatron chuckled in amusement. "Sparkbearing has made you feral. Too bad, though, that as long as I have your son your threats are as good as useless."

Beside Megatron, Talon squeezed Switchblade tighter - making the sparkling squeal in distress - and pressed her finger blade closer to Switchblade's neck. Fresh mech-fluid welled up along the edge of Talon's blade and oozed down the side of her son's neck. Switchblade screamed, his face flushed a dark navy blue. His small legs frantically pedaled the air.

The warrioress froze, panic squeezing her spark into a tiny ball. "_Stop_!" she screamed, holding her arms out in a gesture of surrender. Her eyes were locked on her trembling son. "Don't harm him! Please! I will do whatever you want, just don't harm my son!"

Megatron and Talon shared a triumphant grin. "I want that second gold disk," Megatron said. "Bring it to me. Or I will kill this half-breed sparkling like a stray dog."

The warrioress stood there, torn by maternal programming and her sense of honor. Every particle of her being screamed at her to save her son. But how could she hand over such a valuable object in exchange for his life? To give Megatron the gold disk would shift the war's power struggle in favor of the Predacons. Who knew what Megatron would do once he had both disks? But at the same time how could she allow her son to be sacrificed as a casualty of war? She couldn't! For as much as she'd tried to prevent herself from becoming attached to the sparkling, she'd come to care for Switchblade more deeply than she ever thought possible. The threat of losing him - of having him killed right there in front of her - made Dinobot physically sick to her fuel tank. Her spark spasmed with distress. She couldn't let them hurt her son, but she also couldn't let Megatron have the disk. What was she to do?

Dinobot's anguish must have showed on her face because Optimus spoke up. "It's alright, Dinobot," he called, calmingly and smooth. "Give them the disk. It's in the safe of my personal quarters. The security code is GH-593 Alpha-Gamma 916."

The warrioress stared at Optimus, stunned. Why was Optimus giving her the access code? Giving Megatron the disk could cost the Maximals the Beast Wars. What was her son to him to make him willing to give up such a strategic advantage? She just didn't understand. Predacons never did anything like this for the life of another, especially not for a sparkling who held no strategic value to the war effort.

"Do it, Dinobot," Optimus insisted. As though reading the confusion in her optics he explained, "I don't sacrifice lives for victories, especially not members of my own crew. Switchblade is a part of this crew and I'm not going to kneel here and withhold information on the one thing that I know will ensure his safety. Now go! Go get the disk and save Switch."

"Listen to your commanding officer," Megatron rumbled. Talon shifted Switchblade in her arms and pressed her finger blade to the underside of his chin. The sparkling whimpered and struggled feebly in her arms.

Dinobot stood for another moment of torn indecision. But then with a brusque nod of acceptance to Optimus she turned to Talon. "Swear to me on your honor that if I bring you the gold disk that you will release my son to me unharmed. Swear it and I will do as you ask."

Talon stared at Dinobot calculatingly through a narrowed optic. "Very well," she nodded. "You have my word."

With one last anguished glance at Switchblade Dinobot ran for the lift. Stepping onto it she punched the activation button. It began its ascent. The entire way up Dinobot continued to stare at the tiny blue figure in Talon's arms until he was finally lost from sight by the lift rattling to a stop inside the Axalon's main bridge. Dinobot got out and quickly looked around. The emergency lights were on and bathed the command deck in an eerie blood-red glow. One set of computer monitors was running on the other side of the bridge. Readouts on Sentinel and the Axalon's other main defenses were frozen on screen underneath a flashing red message box that read 'Manual Shutdown Activated.' It seemed Talon had managed to hack into the ship's defense systems and force them into standby mode. That must have been why the Predacons had been able to advance so close to the ship by the time she'd arrived.

As Dinobot stood there stoically absorbing this information she happened to notice a figure laying halfway underneath the one computer terminal. The figure lay on his back with only his feet visible to Dinobot in the murky red gloom of the room. With a startled jolt, the warrioress rushed towards the figure and dropped to her knees beside him. Over the course of racing into battle, confronting Megatron and bartering for her son's life she'd completely forgotten about her missing lover.

"Vermin!" she called, dragging the spy out from under the computer station. "Vermin, answer me!" Pulling Rattrap's limp body close she bent down to examine him. He was unconscious but alive. From what she could tell he'd taken a powerful blow to the side of the head. There was a deep indentation on the left side of his helm the size of a fist. A thin line of half-dried mech-fluid trailed down his chin from the side of his mouth. Dinobot pressed her hand down overtop her lover's chest. Rattrap's spark-pulse was sluggish and uneven. Gritting her teeth together in rage, Dinobot pulled Rattrap's smaller body into her arms and ran for the other side of the bridge. She was going to make Talon _pay_ for attacking her lover and son once this was over…

She knew she was running out of time to retrieve the golden disk, but Rattrap was too injured for her to leave on the floor. Carefully setting Rattrap in one of the CR chambers, the warrioress stepped back out of the machine and pressed the activation button. The CR chamber's door slowly swung close around him.

Her lover now safe, Dinobot turned towards the door and ran in the direction of Optimus's rooms.

* * *

Meanwhile, outside the Axalon, the Predacons had brought the other remaining Maximals to wait for Dinobot's return with their leader and comrades. The captured Maximals knelt together in a close circle with their hands held on their heads. The other Predacons stood in a loose circle around them. All of them had their weapons drawn. In Talon's arms Switchblade had begun to quiet. His previously shrill cries of panic had become soft, keening whimpers as if he no longer had the energy to continue crying for his mother's help. Not long after Dinobot had disappeared into the ship, a group of three cyber-raptors had appeared and clustered around Talon, snapping and hissing at the group of captured Maximals.

Kneeling together in a tight circle, there wasn't a single Maximal who didn't silently glare at Megatron and his transmetal consort in disgust. Even Blackarachnia threw them a dark look out of the corner of her optic.

"This is too much, Megatron, even for you," Optimus said. "To threaten a mother with the life of her child has to be the lowest form of cohesion there is. This sparkling is an innocent bystander. He has nothing to do with-"

"Oh, save your self-righteous speech for someone who cares," Megatron snapped. "This is nothing more than a strategic battle tactic. You Maximals claim this sparkling has no part in this war yet you are all willing to lay down your weapons and surrender the moment its life is threatened. It is not only a part of this war, it has become your weakest link. I am targeting my ex-lieutenant's offspring in a way no different than I would a Maximal generator, communications tower or fuel source. I am merely hitting you where it will hurt the most, as the old saying goes. Not to mention that Dinobot was under no obligation to concede to my demands. She chose to acquiesce of her own free will."

"How can you say that?" Airazor demanded from the back of the group. "You threatened her son's life. Of course she's going to bend to your demands."

"You Maximals always put so much worth on emotional bonds. There is no written law that says one must sacrifice his or herself for another simply because they are genetically linked. Dinobot didn't _have_ to get the gold disk to save her half-breed whelp. She _chose_ to. It's because of her emotional attachment to this sparkling that she's betraying you."

Optimus scowled at Megatron in disgust. "She's not betraying us. She's doing what any good maternal unit would do for her offspring. No sane bot would ever hold something like that against her."

"Then why do you denounce me for using such a tactic when you just admitted it is an effective method for getting what I want?"

"Because you are manipulating a mother's sense of duty to her child! That's why!"

Megatron snorted and shook his head. "Before coming to this planet Dinobot was a true Predacon. There was a time when she was just like Talon - ruthless and without mercy. It has only been since she joined you Maximals that she's developed this… weakness of hers. She is now just like all you other Maximals: hobbled by emotional attachments and deluded by some idealistic view of right and wrong. Wake up, Primal. We are in a war. There is no such thing as innocent bystanders here."

Optimus grit his dentals together, straining to keep his composure. Around him the other Maximals glared at the warlord in unconcealed hatred. Their disgust was almost palpable.

There was a sharp snap of hydraulics activating from the underside of the ship and one of the lifts began to descend. Everyone - Maximals and Predacons alike - turned to watch as the lift came to a stop and Dinobot stepped off it with the missing gold disk held in her hand.

"Yes," Megatron crowed, his facial plates twisted with delight. Dinobot slowly came to a stop half a dozen feet from him and Talon. "Throw me the disk."

The warrioress hesitated. She clutched the disk tightly in her hand.

"Give Lord Megatron the disk!" Talon snarled. Switchblade warbled pitifully in her arms.

Casting her son an anxious glance, Dinobot schooled her features and tossed the alien disk to Megatron. The warlord caught it and held it up over his head like a trophy.

"Yes!" he roared. "The power to change the future now rests in my hands!"

"Remember your promise!" Dinobot yelled at Talon. "You swore to me on your honor that you would return my son to me after I brought you the disk."

"So I did," the transmetal femme agreed. "You've fulfilled your end of the pact, so now I will fulfill mine." Removing her finger from Switchblade's throat, Talon threw the whimpering sparkling to the ground at Dinobot's feet. The sparkling hit the packed dirt and screamed, his tiny protoform curling around itself in pain. The three cyber-raptors behind Talon snarled and danced in place at the sight of the helpless sparkling writhing on the ground. No doubt they thought him an easy meal in their primitive minds. But before they could attack, they were stopped by a sharp look from Talon and fell silent by her side.

Dinobot immediately swooped down and snatched her son's shivering form up into her arms. Tucking his head underneath her chin, the warrioress clutched him tightly to her breastplate as if to physically shield him from anymore abuse with her own body. Switchblade clung to her, his hands clutching the edges of her armor plating as though afraid of being torn from his mother's grasp at any moment. His renewed squeals of fear were muffled into Dinobot's neck. His spark pulsed wildly against the front of Dinobot's chest. The warrioress hugged him close, her own spark pounding against the inside of her sparkchamber. She wasn't sure who was shaking more - her or Switchblade. Quickly she began to back away from Megatron and Talon towards her Maximal comrades. She made sure to keep the top half of her body turned away from them to better shield the chirping sparkling in her arms. Coming to the edge of their group, she slowly sunk to her knees beside the rest of them, her body protectively hunched down over her son. Beside her, Silverbolt and Optimus edged closer as if to offer their own protection to the traumatized sparkling.

Megatron stared at her with a sneer. "You have let these Maximals make you weak, Dinobot. You used to be one of the greatest fighters, but now you are exactly the same as any other femme that's ever spark-bore. What happened to your calculated logic? Your ruthless sense of tenacity?"

"My son is more important than that gold disk," Dinobot defiantly snarled up at him. "If you ever try to harm him or even lay a finger on him again I swear to you I will rip your sparkchamber open with my bare hands and feed your still pulsing spark to the ship's reactor core."

"Oh ho!" the unknown Predacon mech chuckled in amusement. "I do like this Maximal femme."

"Silence, Rampage!" Megatron growled. Turning back to the huddled group of Maximals the warlord stared at them thoughtfully. "You know, it would be foolish of me to pass up this opportunity and not permanently remove the possibility of you Maximals causing more trouble for me in the future. With but a single attack I managed to not only retake the golden disk, but also take their base and capture all of Optimus's crew." The fusion cannon on his arm suddenly hummed to life, its plasma coils glowing white. Slowly he aimed it at Optimus's chest. "It would be so easy to deactivate you in a single blow…"

Dinobot tensed. Her arms instinctively tightened around her son's tiny body. A murmur of alarm went through her fellow Maximals.

"My Lord," Talon quickly spoke up from behind Megatron. "The Maximals are already defeated. This is unnecessary."

"Unnecessary?" Megatron looked at her incredulously. "With their execution the Predacons will win the Beast Wars!"

Talon stepped closer to him. "I understand that, my Lord, and under normal circumstances I would agree with you. But I made a vow not to harm the sparkling. I cannot go back on my word now."

"You've already fulfilled your promise," Megatron snarled. "You returned the bastard child to its mother, but you never specified as to how long it would remain alive after you did so."

"Then kill everyone else except the sparkling," Talon said. "Without its mother or anyone else to look after it it will eventually succumb to hunger or the elements and die, but its death will not have been on my hands."

"Very well," Megatron agreed. Turning to his men he called, "Kill them all except the sparkling!"

"It is a shame to waste such a succulent little spark and leave it here to rot in the wilderness," the one called Rampage said. Stepping up to Dinobot, Rampage leaned close and drew in a deep intake of air. "Ah, I can smell the little one's spark from here. So young and sweet, and tinged with the tanginess of fear. Such a rare delicacy."

Dinobot snarled and clutched Switchblade closer. The sparkling warbled fearfully into her chest. "You come anywhere near my son I will rip you in two, monster."

"Ha ha!" Rampage laughed. "But the child would make such a delicious meal. It has been so very long since I've tasted the flesh of a newspark."

Dinobot growled deep in the back of her throat. She rolled from her knees onto the back of her heels. She crouched low with her body bent over her son's tiny frame. She glared at Rampage with her teeth bared. "You will have to offline me first and tear him from my dead arms before I give him to you."

"That can be easily arranged," Rampage replied with a laugh. "I will make a feast out of both you and the child!"

"Oh yeah? Well feast of this, ugly!" Cheetor yelled from behind Dinobot and sprung to his feet. Clapping his hands together to form a blaster gun he sent of green ball of energy exploding into Rampage's face.

The transmetal mech howled in pain and staggered backwards, clutching his face. The other Maximals with built-in weapon modifications all sprung into action as well as the others lunged for their weapons heaped in a small pile several feet away. Cheetor shot plasma blasts, Silverbolt fired wing missiles while Dinobot opened fire with her optic lasers. Within moments the area beneath the Axalon became a chaotic battlefield once more. Predacons scrambled to return fire as the other Maximals recovered their own weapons and joined the fight.

"Cheetor, cover Dinobot!" Optimus called over the roar of battle. "Keep Switch safe!"

"I'm on it!" he cried and took point by Dinobot's side. Switchblade squealed in fear and huddled against his mother's chest. Dinobot grasped him tight but did not stop firing.

"No!" Megatron roared as he haphazardly aimed his fusion cannon in the Maximals' direction and fired. "_Nooooo!_"

"Predacons, fall back and retreat!" Talon yelled from the warlord's side. Her pack of cyber-raptors had already scattered and fled.

"Yes, my Queen!" Inferno cried, and converted to beast-mode. Others quickly followed his example.

"No!" Rampage screamed, his optics still locked on Dinobot and the terrified sparkling in her arms. "I want that sparkling for my dinner!"

"Rampage, I ordered the retreat!" Talon yelled. "Do not disobey me!"

But the deranged protoform ignored her and continued his advance on the warrioress and her son. Dinobot swung around to face him, her optics glowing green. But before she could open fire on the approaching mech, Rampage suddenly cried out in agony and dropped to the ground writhing in pain. Waves of bluish-white energy danced across his superstructure.

Startled, Dinobot glanced at Talon standing several yards away. In the femme's hand she held a small cage of energon crystals with what looked like a disembodied spark spiked between them. Talon finally released her hold on the device and the spikes of energon retracted from the spark. Rampage limply sagged to the ground and lay there a moment before shakily pushing himself back up to his feet.

"I said retreat!" Talon snarled and held the caged spark up for Rampage to see. "Do not forget who Lord Megatron entrusted your spark to. Ignore me again and I will squeeze it down for twice as long!"

The mech glowered at Talon but obediently holstered his blaster. With one last hungry glare at Dinobot he transformed and scuttled away. Not far behind him, Talon transformed as well and disappeared.

"This retreat means nothing Primal!" Megatron shouted. "I now have both gold disks. I've already won the Beast Wars! All you Maximals can do now is sit and watch as I rewrite the course of history in favor of the Predacons!" Then in a flurry of shifting plates and limbs Megatron transformed and took to the sky, speeding away in the direction of the Predacon's warship.

Silence descended over the battlefield. Dinobot shakily deactivated her optic lasers and drew in a deep intake of air. Her entire body was shaking. Her shoulders, hands and back trembled violently as though she'd just fought a three-day long battle on low energy. Her spark pulsed wildly against the inside of her chest cavity. In her arms Switchblade warbled and cuddled closer to her, his tiny hands clutching the edges of her armor plating. Cupping the back of his head in her hand she held him close, savoring each of her son's quickened spark-pulses against her chest. She suddenly felt too weak to stand anymore and shakily sagged to her knees.

It had been so close… So very, very close. She'd almost lost him. She'd come so close to having Switch taken from her. What would have happened if she hadn't arrived on the battlefield when she did? What if Optimus hadn't given her that access code? What if Talon hadn't returned Switchblade to her like she'd promised? What would she have done?

Dinobot didn't know. She had no answers with which to answer such questions. Unconsciously, she clutched her son tighter, pressing his tiny body to her as if to somehow meld him with her own superstructure where she could always keep him safe.

"Dinobot!" Optimus's voice startled her out of her thoughts. Within seconds the crew was gathered around her and staring at her worriedly. "Are you okay? Is Switch?"

It took the warrioress a moment to find her voice. "He's alright," she murmured. Relaxing her hold she tried to pull Switchblade away from her enough to inspect his injuries, but the sparkling wouldn't have it. He tightened his hold on her and squealed angrily as she tried to draw him away from her chest. Warbling weakly he curled closer and buried his face into the hollow of her neck. Dinobot couldn't find the willpower to try and remove him again and instead slipped two fingers between Switchblade's shoulder and chin to feel his neck. The sparkling chirped and squirmed uncomfortably.

Dinobot removed her fingers and inspected the smear of mech-fluid on them. Switchblade's neck was still bleeding, but the cut hadn't felt deep or particularly serious. He would make a full recovery.

"Come on, let's get you two inside," Rhinox said. He gently took the warrioress by the elbow and helped her to her feet. Dinobot willingly let him lead her towards the lift. The other Maximals followed quietly behind them. No one seemed willing to speak. Although they'd managed to drive Megatron away without any casualties, they'd lost the alien disk. There was no way they'd be able to get it back now.

Dinobot imagined she could feel the accusation in her comrades' optics as they solemnly made their way back inside the ship. She could only imagine what they thought of her for what she'd done. Before this day she never would have thought she could be so easily manipulated like that. She'd spent so long secure in the belief that nothing could rattle her - that nothing could ever affect her on the battlefield. Yet in less than an hour everything she'd once believed about herself had been smashed to pieces. She'd forfeited her side's advantage in the war for the life of her son. How had she slipped so much that just the thought of someone harming Switchblade could bring such blinding terror to her? What was happening to her? What had happened to the hardened warrior she once was? Over the last few months she'd begun to suspect that she was developing more and more of a maternal interest towards her progeny, but never had she realized before now just how strongly she'd become attached. Would this revelation somehow change the way she went into battle from now on? Would it change the way she viewed her son, lover, herself and the way they all fit together as a family?

But probably the one question she most desperately wanted an answer to: was there anything could she do to make up for her selfish betrayal and regain her honor?

Any guesses as to what's going to happen next? Please review!


	21. Plans

_Important Author's Note__:_ The reason why this chapter is so late is because I had to spend the four days right before Christmas in the hospital. I had to be hospitalized for pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in the lungs) and a blood clot in my left leg which were caused by birth control pills. I just want to take this moment to send a mass warning out to all my readers who are on the pill, who might be thinking of taking the pill or who know someone else who is. If you are taking Yaz, Yazmin, Ocella, Zarah or any of this brand's other generic manifestations, please know that this brand of contraceptives is currently being sued in numerous class action suits because it is the number one oral contraceptive known by the FDA to cause blood clots. (I did not find any of this out until after I was hospitalized.) If you are taking this brand and experience any shortness of breath, cramping in your legs or chest pain, please get to a doctor _immediately_. Even if you're not experiencing any of these symptoms, please still see your doctor soon to see about changing to another brand. I don't want anyone else to have to experience the same dangerous side effects of these drugs as I did. I am currently on powerful blood thinners for at least the next six months to counteract these blood clots. To all my female readers, please know that this is serious. Those side effects they list on the back of the packages aren't just for show. This can happen to you too. If you are taking any of these pills please discontinue taking them _immediately_. Your health is too important to play around with.

**Chapter Twenty-One: Plans**

"We have to consider reconfiguring the layout of Sentinel's outer defense line," Optimus said as he pulled up a 3D image of the Axalon and its surrounding area on the bridge's holo-table. "Megatron's last attack depleted a massive amount of our defenses' ammunition stock. We don't have enough rounds or plasma cells to keep all the gun turrets we currently have positioned around the ship functional. One more attack from the Predacons will wipe out our remaining defenses within minutes. We need to consolidate vantage points to conserve what little resources we have left."

The rest of the Axalon's crew stood in a tight circle around the holo-table. All of their faces were grim. Since the Predacon attack two days earlier they'd all known that things were not going well for them. It wasn't until Optimus had called them together for this emergency meeting, however, that they'd found out just how dire their situation really was.

Dinobot leaned closer and studied the topographical map from the other side of the table across from Optimus. "How many gun turrets are we going to leave operational?"

"At least eight. Maybe nine if we can spare enough ammunition. We have fifteen right now at different points around the ship and its perimeter, but as I said, we don't have the resources to keep all of them running or what little resources we have left to spread between them are going to run out very quickly."

Dinobot hummed under her breath and studied the diagram through narrowed optics. In her arms she held Switchblade perched in the crux of one elbow against her chest. His head was firmly nestled under her chin. Ever since his abduction the sparkling was rarely ever seen out of either of his creators' arms. If anyone else tried to hold him or if Dinobot or Rattrap tried to set him down even for a few minutes Switchblade would become agitated and chirp plaintively until he was once again ensconced in one of his parent's arms. Dinobot suspected he was suffering some sort of separation anxiety as a result of Talon taking him hostage. Switchblade only ever seemed to relax when she held him or was at least within sight of him. It physically boiled her mech-fluid to see her usually energetic son so quiet and withdrawn like this. The next time she met Talon on the battlefield she was going to rip the other femme apart as payment for the trauma she had inflicted upon her progeny.

To her left, Rattrap stood close beside her at the holo-table. Ever since the attack on the base the spy seemed to always be hovering somewhere near her and their son. It was like he felt compelled to keep them constantly within sight. Whether that was because of some male instinctual need to protect his mate and child, or some lingering sense of failure from being unable to stop Talon from taking their son, Dinobot didn't know. All she knew for sure was that for once she did not begrudge the spy's close proximity to her, and in fact welcomed it. After almost having her son taken and her lover offlined Dinobot felt distinctly ill at ease unless she was within sight of them. She did not like to think how close she'd come to almost losing both of them, or how much the threat of Talon harming her son had rattled her to her core. It shamed her sense of battle prowess to admit just how easily she'd been manipulated to hand over the alien disk to Megatron.

Shifting Switchblade in her arms so that he sat in the bend of her other elbow, she leaned closer to the holographic image. Switchblade clung to her and buried his face deeper into the side of her neck. "If we are to reconfigure our perimeter layout with only eight defensive points then we must post at least one gun turret on this rock ledge here overlooking the ship and another one here, here, and here to protect the Axalon's most vulnerable points," she said, pointing out each spot on the hologram with her finger. The hologram flickered each time the tip of her claw passed through the image's neon-green surface.

Optimus nodded in agreement.

"We'll also need at least two automated guns near the rear of the ship to stop any attackers approaching from the east," Rhinox said.

"It would be advisable to leave several mounted on top of the surrounding cliffs to guard the airspace above the Axalon from any fliers," Silverbolt suggested. "To remove them would leave us vulnerable to any aerial attacks."

"And we'll also need at least two to the south to guard against anyone sneaking in through the hills," Blackarachnia added. "I should know. When I was still a Predacon that was the way I always snuck in towards the ship."

Optimus heaved a heavy sigh. "Everyone's suggestions are valid, and under normal circumstances I would take each and every one of them in advisement. But without enough ammunition or plasma cells to keep so many gun turrets operational we're going to have to survive with the bare minimum of automated defenses. We're just going to have to remain extra vigilant through patrols and increased monitor surveillance."

"Dat's all fine 'n good, but wha 're we gonna do 'bout Mega-dip?" Rattrap spoke up. He shifted agitatedly beside Dinobot. "Wha' we gonna do 'bout dat alien disk he took? We can't just let him keep it. Who knows wha' he'd plannin' ta do with it."

The transmetal gorilla wearily shook his head. "Unfortunately, we don't have the resources to try and recover it through force at this moment. Our base is for all intents and purposes a sitting duck from a defensive standpoint. We have no defense perimeter to really speak of, let alone enough men to mount an attack _and_ watch the base at the same time. Megatron is no doubt hoping we'll try something like that and pick us off as soon as we cross over into Predacon territory."

"But can we really risk doing nothing?" Airazor said from the other side of the table. "Megatron mentioned something about being able to change the future now that he has the second disk."

"I don't know about the rest of you guys, but that doesn't sound good to me," Cheetor murmured.

"Or me," Optimus agreed. "But we don't know _how_ Megatron intends to use the disks yet. I'm not sure how one would use such a thing to alter history, but it's obvious he's planning something with them. And nothing Megatron plans is ever good…"

"So wha 're we gonna do?" Rattrap demanded. All the other Maximals stared at Optimus, desperate for answers, reassurance and guidance. Since the Predacon attack there had been a noticeable change in the air amongst the Maximals. The ease of which their base had been infiltrated, having one of their members attacked and another one taken hostage had rattled all of them. There was the unspoken, but universally felt feeling that they were steadily losing this war.

Optimus gave a weary sigh that seemed to come from the very depths of his spark. "With what little information we have, there really isn't that much we _can_ do right now. We have no idea what Megatron's plans are or when he might implement them. We don't have the firepower or manpower to make any kind of preemptive strike on the Predacons, and we have no way of figuring out how he might use the disks because we no longer have one to study."

Dinobot involuntarily winced. Although she was sure there'd been no veiled rebuke towards her in that, Optimus's words still stung. She fought to keep her facial plates from showing any of the resentment she felt at being reminded just _why_ they no longer had the alien disk to study. Unconsciously she hugged Switchblade closer to her, pressing his face into the side of her neck. His spark pulsed slow and heavy against her breastplate.

"Until we're able to get more information and make an informed plan," Optimus went on, "we're just going to have to remain vigilant and respond to the first sign of threatening movement we see. Besides increased perimeter patrols, I'm also going to deploy frequent scouting parties into Predacon territory to keep a closer eye on Megatron. No doubt if he's going to make a move, he's going to make it soon."

As he scanned the wall of faces looking back at him, the transmetal gorilla suddenly looked older to Dinobot, as if he'd aged several centuries over just the last few minutes. For possibly the first time in her life, the warrioress did not envy Optimus for his rank or position. She did not envy him the weight of his responsibility or the burden of worrying about the welfare of his subordinates. He was the rock the Maximals had to come to depend on to see them through this war and get them back to their home planet alive. For once in her life Dinobot was glad she was not leader of the Maximals as she'd originally aspired to be before joining their crew. For if she did hold such an important role within their ranks she never would have been able to justify the sacrifice of the gold disk to save her progeny. She owed the majority of that decision to Optimus. But while Optimus had saved her the agony of having to choose between her son and her loyalty to her sworn comrades, the weight of what she'd done still hung heavily on her conscience like a sin she could never be redeemed from.

With a flick of his finger, Optimus deactivated the hologram. The table went dark. "It's getting late," he murmured. "For now I suggest we all get some rest. We will begin devising patrol schedules tomorrow."

There was a murmur of agreement around the table. The circle dissolved and the crewmembers began to drift away towards the door. A thin, but pervasive aura of hopelessness seemed to hang over each of them as they disappeared into the corridor. With her lover close beside her, Dinobot left the bridge. Neither she nor Rattrap said anything as they made their way through the ship. Any sense of hope they'd managed to glean from the meeting had been bleak at best. As though desperate to minimize the space between them even more, Rattrap reached out and gently rested his palm against the small of Dinobot's back. The warrioress said nothing of his touch and continued through the halls, her lover keeping pace beside her. Within minutes, they came within view of the crew's personal quarters. Together the two stopped in front of one of the doors lining the hallway, which Dinobot opened by punching a short sequence of numbers into the door's keypad.

The room was Rattrap's old living quarters. He'd all but abandoned it after learning of Dinobot's pregnancy. Not long after their son's birth, though, they'd begun using the empty room as a makeshift nursery where they could put Switchblade down for recharge each night while Dinobot and Rattrap slept undisturbed in Dinobot's quarters down the hall. Once Switchblade was three months old they'd found he was old enough to sleep through the night by himself without needing the frequent feedings and waste disposals he had when he was a newspark. So for privacy and the comfort of all three of them not having to live squished together in the same room designed with only a single occupant in mind, Dinobot and Rattrap laid their son down each night in his own room.

Switchblade had drifted offline in Dinobot's arms sometime between them leaving the bridge and reaching their rooms. The sparkling warbled softly in his sleep as the warrioress pulled him away from her chest and laid him on the berth. The sparkling squirmed a moment before finding a comfortable place on his stomach and drifting into deeper recharge. Dinobot draped a thermal sheet over his tiny frame and stood straight from over the berth. In the conversion of his old rooms to Switchblade's nursery, Rattrap had installed a long sheet of metal siding along the length of the berth to prevent their son from falling out or escaping in the middle of the night.

Staring at her son curled in his nest of thermal sheets, Dinobot was suddenly reluctant to leave. Ever since Switchblade had been held hostage Dinobot found herself unable to stand the thought of being parted from him for extended periods of time without great hesitation like she was feeling now. She cursed herself for this newfound weakness, but she couldn't help it. Too much had happened. The sparkling had burrowed his way too deeply into her spark for her to try and pretend she didn't care for him.

"Hey, Choppa'face," Rattrap said from the doorway. His voice startled the warrioress out of her thoughts. "Ya okay?"

"I'm fine," she murmured and quickly turned away from the berth, forcing her facial plates into an expressionless mask. As she hurried for the door she made sure to flick on the small one-way intercom Rattrap had installed in the wall so they could hear if their son called for them during the night. Ignoring her lover's concerned glance she strode down the hall to her and Rattrap's own room. The spy followed close behind her and closed the door behind them.

"Choppa'face, seriously. Wha's wrong? Ya've been actin' weird ever since Megatron got dat disk. Wha's up?"

The warrioress growled under her breath and looked away from Rattrap, refusing to meet his optics. "I do not wish to talk about it, Rodent. Just leave me be."

"No. Something's wrong. I can feel it. Just tell me wha's gotten inta you. I don't like not knowin' wha's goin' on in dat cranial unit of yers."

Suddenly wearied by this conversation - even though it hadn't even started - Dinobot trudged to their berth and sank down onto its edge to sit. Her shoulders slumped at she leaned forward over her knees and miserably stared at the floor. She sat for several moments of silence to compose her thoughts. Rattrap did not press her, and patiently stood near the door with both arms crossed over his chest.

"It's the disk," she finally murmured after a time, her voice low and filled with shame. "It was my fault we lost it. Optimus says nothing to rebuke me for its loss, but I can see in in his and everyone else's optics that they blame me for it."

Rattrap stared at her incredulously. "Ya can't be serious. No one blames ya wha' happened. Dat walkin' knife drawer had Switch by da throat. Of course ya were gonna do wha' she said."

"I know!" Dinobot snapped, looking up to spear Rattrap with a frustrated glare. "And that is the problem! I did what any maternal unit would do: I traded my faction's one advantage in the war to save my son's life. A true warrior would have never done so! A true warrior would have weighed the life of one against the outcome of an entire war whose repercussions span over hundreds of generations. A true warrior would have never made such a selfish decision."

Rattrap seemed taken aback. He stared at her in confused shock. "Are you sayin' dat'chu wished ya hadn't saved Switch? Dat ya would've rather kept dat disk an' had our son killed instead?"

"No!" Dinobot cried, vehemently shaking her head. "That is not what I am saying! If I had to chose between the two of them again, I would make the exact same choice I did. I couldn't bear the thought of losing Switchblade. But that is what troubles me so. I have grown too attached. I can no longer call myself a true warrior because of my fondness for him. True warriors shun personal ties. To create a close bond with another goes against our code because of the danger it poses on the battlefield. My affection for Switchblade is a weakness no enemy Predacon wouldn't exploit. I am a danger to you Maximals. If Megatron or Talon were to ever capture Switchblade again I cannot say what I wouldn't do to ensure his safety, up to and including betraying my sworn comrades."

"Ya stupid saurian," Rattrap sighed, stepping closer to her so that he stood directly in front of her. With Dinobot sitting on the berth and the spy standing they shared almost the same optic-level. Leaning closer he forced the warrioress to look up at him and meet his gaze. "No one blames ya fer wha' happened. Rhinox told me all 'bout wha' happened after I came outta da CR chamber dat day. No one thinks ya did anything wrong. Optimus gave ya da codes fer da disk himself, just like anyone else on the crew would'a. If I'd've been in yer situation I would'a done da exact same thing you did."

"Perhaps…" Dinobot murmured, although her spark continued to ache with remembered shame. "But I cannot go on without making amends for my part in losing the disk. I gave that disk to Optimus in hopes of keeping it from ever falling into Predacons hands, yet it was I who ultimately gave it to Megatron and endangered countless lives. My sense of honor will not let me rest until I've rectified my transgressions."

"But wha' can ya possibly do?" Rattrap implored, frustrated and upset by the warrioress's confusing view of the world and her responsibility to it. "Ya can't take Megs an' all his goons on by yerself. We don't even know wha' dat two ton leather couch is gonna do with those disks anyway."

"I don't know…" Dinobot admitted, hanging her head in shame. "I honestly don't know…" She suddenly felt tired. So achingly, frustratingly tired. Crushed by the weight of her sins, the proud warrioress couldn't help but wonder how much simpler life would be right now if her fake superstructure had never been damaged in the quantum surge; if she and Rattrap had never set aside their petty differences and come together as lovers; if she had never gotten pregnant and had her son. How much simpler would her life have been if none of those things had happened? Would she still have been so weak to do what she knew was best for the greater good? Would she still have her honor and not feel as though she had besmirched her warrior's code with her selfishness?

"Don't," Rattrap leaned closer to whisper in her audio. "Don't do dis to yerself. I know wha' yer thinkin' an' it's not yer fault wha' happened. Yer still da strongest bot I've ever met - mech or femme. You savin' Switch da way ya did proves it. It shows ya care an' dat yer not some sparkless Pred who'd rather see an innocent sparkling go to da Matrix instead of handin' over some stupid gold disk. It proves I didn't make a mistake when I started chasin' yer tail all those months back."

Despite herself, Dinobot snorted at the spy's attempt at levity. Looking up into her lover's optics she suddenly yearned for closeness and the reassurance of his presence. Reaching out, she wound her arm around Rattrap's waist and dragged him closer to her. The rat willingly took the half-step closer so that he stood immediately in front of her between her legs, his face mere inches from her own.

Without speaking the two leaned towards each other, their mouths meeting in a passionate, almost desperate, kiss. Arms wound around each and pulled the other close until they were like a single entity, their bodies pressed so closely together it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began. Hands hungrily groped up and down each other's superstructures. Before long, chestplates found their way to the floor - tossed aside in the lovers' haste. They writhed in each other's embrace on the berth, lost in their own private world of pleasure. This was not the first time they had made love since their son's birth, nor the tenth. But it was without a doubt the most passionate. Dinobot felt consumed by need for her lover. She wanted him. She _needed_ him. In these dark and turbulent times, he was the only one able to give her any real sense of hope. Of the few mechs she'd ever deemed worthy enough to welcome into her berth, Rattrap was the only one she'd ever felt truly comfortable around. He was the only mech she'd ever felt some sort of connection with. When they were alone together in their quarters like they were now, she didn't feel like she had to keep her true self hidden behind a mask of cold asceticism like she did with everyone else. With him she felt freer to be the femme she really was. He'd accepted her for who she was - snarls, threats, faults and all. And through him she'd gained something else she'd never been able to understand the value of before now: a family.

Dinobot had never been skilled at expressing her feelings through words or meaningful dialog. Such skills were not considered necessary for a Predacon's education and upbringing. So instead, like any good descendant of her race, she let her actions speak for themselves and physically _showed_ her lover the true depths of her feelings for him.

It was sometime much later that she and Rattrap finally fell limp to the berth in each other's arms, their passion sated and their sparks still pulsing wildly against the inside of their sparkchambers. They both panted heavily for air in the warm afterglow of their lovemaking, their bodies slick with condensation. Rattrap lay spooned tight against her, his head nestled in the hollow of her shoulder. Neither said a word. Any words right now would have sullied the delicate understanding the two of them had forged over the last hour and a half. Some things were not able to be expressed through spoken language or meant to be said out loud. Some things were better left kept inside like a secret treasure - like Dinobot's deep affection for the rat. She dared not admit them to him even now, for to do so would be a danger to both him, her and their infant son. No. It was better nor to share such feelings, the warrioress firmly told herself. To admit how strongly she cared for him now might somehow weaken her resolve to do what she knew was demanded of her as consequence for breaking her warrior's code.

With that thought in mind the raptor held her lover closer, relishing the weight of his smaller body against her and the steady beat of his spark against her rib struts. Before long she felt Rattrap's intakes even out to a gentle whisper and his internal systems power down to a resonant hum. Dinobot didn't know how long she lay awake in the dark listening to the hypnotic purr of his intakes, but it was sometime much, much later before she was finally able to follow Rattrap into restless, dreamless sleep, unaware of the possessiveness with which she continued to clutch him to her even in her sleep as though reluctant to let herself be parted from him…

* * *

Dinobot drifted awake the next morning feeling ill-rested and stiff. The room was silent and dark. She lay for a moment staring up at the ceiling. Glancing at the chronometer beside the berth she saw that it was still an hour before dawn. Rattrap lay sound asleep beside her. At some point during the night he'd shifted so that he lay half on top of her, his arm and one leg thrown across hers as if to keep her from escaping his hold. The warrioress lay for several moments of content silence, waiting for her processor to rid itself of the last remnants of sleep.

It was as she lay there that she suddenly remembered the decision she'd come to the night before while waiting for sleep to claim her.

Dinobot felt a heavy weight descend on her, as if something was physically squeezing her spark into a tiny ball of pain. Rattrap's intakes were slow and rhythmic beside her. Dinobot doubted he would be awake for another few hours. (It was then that she also remembered how exuberant they'd been the night before and decided that it would probably be more than a few more hours before her lover woke.)

With great care, the warrioress lifted Rattrap's arm from overtop her and slipped out from underneath him. The spy mumbled something incoherent in his sleep before curling against the warm spot on the padding she'd just vacated and drifting deeper into sleep. Dinobot quickly located her chestplate on the floor which had somehow ended up halfway underneath the berth. With a sharp snap she reattached it over her sparkchamber.

Dinobot glanced at her sleeping lover. Rattrap hadn't even stirred. An unbidden swell of yearning rose up inside of her. How she would have loved to rejoin the spy on the berth and sink back into recharge with him tightly pressed against her like a living heat generator. But this was something she could not do, no matter how much she might have wished she could. She had something else she had to do. Something too important for her delay any longer.

Stepping closer to the berth, Dinobot leaned down to look into her lover's face. Rattrap's facial plated were smoothed with sleep, as though there was nothing that could disturb his sleeping thoughts. "Forgive me," she whispered too quietly to actually wake him. "But what I do now is for the sake of both you and our son. Please do not think too ill of me for the sacrifice I am about to make…"

As expected she got no response from the sleeping mech, nor did she want one. She could not risk Rattrap waking up and preventing her from carrying out her plan. She could not let anyone try to stop her. Not only for her family, but for her crewmates and the sake of the countless millions over the course of known history, she had to do this alone.

"Farewell," she murmured, and rushed out of the room before her emotions could get the better of her. She did not pause outside hers and Rattrap's room or even look back over her shoulder. To do so would only weaken her resolve and distract her from what she needed to do. But before she could leave, there was still one more person she needed to see…

Sneaking to the door across the hall just down from hers and Rattrap's she punched in the code to her son's room and slipped inside as quietly as a shadow. Like his father, the sparkling was still deeply ensconced in sleep. Dinobot crept to the edge of her son's berth and peered down over the side. Switchblade lay in a curled ball in the middle of his bedding. One three-toed foot twitched against the padding as though he were in the midst of a vivid dream. Despite herself, Dinobot felt her lips twist back from her teeth in an agonized grimace.

"I wish I could have seen you when you are older," she whispered, careful to keep her voice low. "I would have liked to have seen how you turned out. Given the opposing sets of genes you inherited from your sire and me, I can only imagine what conflicting traits you will develop later in life."

Leaning farther down over the side, the raptor reached out and gently touched her son's cheek with the back of one clawed finger. "You and the Vermin have captured a larger part of my spark than I ever imagined possible before I came to this planet. I have come to care for you both very deeply, but that frightens me more than anything I have ever faced in battle before. Predacons are not familiar with the concepts of love or affection like Maximals are. I have never felt such strong emotions for another bot before, let alone two, and it scares me. I would do anything in my power to see you back to our home planet and raised with some decent Predacon values, but I cannot stay with you any longer. I cannot return to Cybertron with you and your father and see you grow up. I must regain my honor here on this planet. For the sake of our family's honor and your own future I must do this…"

Dinobot moved her hand to the back of her son's head and tenderly stroked the gentle curve of his cranial unit. Switchblade's foot twitched against the berth pad in his sleep and he released a tiny warble. "I am going to miss you…" she whispered, her throat suddenly tight and strained with a near overwhelming rush of emotions. "I can only hope that your father someday tells you about me when you are older and that you remember my sacrifice with honor."

Having said all that she had come to say, she turned away from the sparkling's berth and fled the room as quickly as she could. In the few short minutes she'd spent saying her last goodbyes, she'd already felt her resolve begin to slip. She had to leave. Now. Quickly! Before her determination wavered anymore. For everyone's sake she had to remain strong.

She met no one on her way to the bridge. It was still too early in the morning for even those assigned to the first shift to be awake. Within record time she reached the Axalon's command deck. Like in the corridors, no one else was there. Striding into one of the lifts, she descended to the ground outside. Only a faint strip of murky pink light warmed the eastern corner of the sky. With a quick command, the warrioress transformed into her raptor form and sped away from the Axalon at top speed.

_Farewell, my friends,_ she silently called to the ship and its slumbering occupants before it was finally lost from view behind the surrounding hills. _If I am successful then perhaps someday in the very distant future we will all meet again in the Well of Allsparks to recount each of our roles in this great war. But to ensure that that might still someday be possible I must go and meet my destiny. I will stop at nothing to defeat Megatron's plans even if it costs me my own life. Of that I swear to you on my honor…_

The sun began to rise higher in the sky, casting a golden red light across the rocky plains stretched out before her. Somewhere in the distance lay the Darksyde, and in it the alien disks Megatron planned to somehow twist the future with for his own gains. There was a crisp chill in the air and the open blanket of sky overhead held the promise of mild weather. Perhaps it was Dinobot's imagination, but she couldn't help but feel there was a peculiar thrum in the air that morning, like the whisper of some unspoken threat hovering somewhere just over the horizon.

_Come what may,_ Dinobot thought as she sped across the empty plains towards her destiny. _Let the battle be joined…_

_

* * *

_

Rattrap woke slowly, his systems sluggish and unwilling to come online just yet. He didn't know what had woken him, but as he became more and more aware of himself and his surroundings he suddenly noticed the slight chill in the room. He instinctively huddled closer to himself and squirmed against the berth in search of his lover's side. Probably the one thing he'd come to enjoy the most about him and Dinobot sharing a berth was being able to wake up next to a warm superstructure he could wrap himself around and use as his own personal pillow. Although Dinobot constantly complained about his unconscious habit of cuddling in bed, the raptor had never once in all the time they'd begun sharing sleeping quarters kicked him out of their berth for wanting to be close to her. The spy suspected his lover secretly enjoyed such closeness but was just too proud to actually admit it.

Becoming more and more aware of the seeping chill of the room, Rattrap sleepily stretched out an arm across the berth to find out where his lover had turned so that he could press himself against her warmth. Instead all he found was an empty half of berthmat devoid of any traces of body heat.

"Huh? Wha' da…" he murmured, finally onlining his optics to see. Just as he'd already suspected from his questing hand, Dinobot's side of the berth was empty.

Now fully awake, Rattrap sat up and groggily looked around. The chronometer near the side of the berth said that it was still early in the morning - far earlier than Rattrap would have normally woken up if he'd been left to his own devices. But no. His lover had to decide to get up early and leave him with nothing but a cold, empty berth to curl up against. Primus, even those who were assigned to early morning duty weren't up yet. What was Dinobot thinking? Had she decided to work off whatever troubles were still bothering her the night before (despite their vigorous activities) and go practice some of her sword routines?

That was possible. The female raptor had been known to do that on occasion, but usually she waited at least until sunrise so she could inform him of her departure. Was she still upset about losing that gold disk? If she was there was little to no chance of her emerging from the training area before the afternoon shift change.

Grumbling under his breath, Rattrap forced himself out of bed. He found his missing chest plate on the floor next to some of his old soldering tools and snapped it back into place. Still trying to drive away the last little bit of trances of sleep from his processor, the spy made his way to his son's room. Despite Rattrap's own aversion to waking up before the sun was able to gain a nice triangular angle in the sky, Switchblade would be waking up soon and demanding his morning fuel.

"Hey, Switch," he greeted as he lifting the still sleeping sparkling out of his walled berth and settled him in his arms. "Wow, yer gettin' heavy. Maybe we really won't hafta worry 'bout you bein' da smallest mech around when you get older."

The sparkling curled against the warmth of his father's chest, still sound asleep, and gave a sleepy warble.

"Yea, you said it, bud. It's way too early ta be gettin' outta bed yet. But since yer mom decided ta leave without even leavin' me a thermal sheet dis morning, there's really no point in tryin' ta get comfortable again. Might as well go an' get something ta eat before everyone else wakes up."

Switchblade was dead to the world as Rattrap made his way to the bridge. When he arrived several minutes later he wasn't surprised to see that no one else was up yet except for the ship's automated systems. He sleepily trudged towards the nearest computer station and dropped down into the chair.

"Like I said: it's too early ta be up yet," he mumbled to no one in particular except maybe his son who slept on in Rattrap's arms oblivious to his father's complaints.

Sighing, Rattrap turned on the monitor and began booting up the system. Ever since Talon had snuck onboard he'd been wanting to do some research on the ship's systems to see if there was any kind of program he could design to help detect Dinobot's transmetal clone.

Speaking of his lizard-faced lover…

Rattrap opened up his terminal's communication line to the ship's lower hanger bay. That was where Dinobot always like to go and train. "Hey, Choppa'face!" he called into the speaker. "Thanks fer leavin' dis morning without tellin' me. I woke up 'bout two minutes away from bein' a Cybertronian rat-scicle."

Nothing but empty silence answered him. 'Empty' meaning he could actually hear his own voice echo back to him over the radio through the hanger bay's cavernous interior.

"Hey! Choppa'face! Ya der? Answer me!"

Again, no reply.

That was strange. No matter what kind of mood Dinobot was in she always answered his radio-messages, even when she knew he was purposelessly trying to be an aft and bug her. Becoming concerned, Rattrap opened up the ship's security camera feeds. The lower hanger bay was empty. None of the main lights were on. He scrolled between several different camera angles, but he couldn't see any sign of the warrioress anywhere in the grainy black and white images.

A sinking feeling, not unlike when one is dropped from a high elevation, formed in the bottom of Rattrap's fuel tank. He was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

The spy reached up to the side of his helm and clicked on his personal comm-link line. "Lizard Lips? Ya der? Where are ya?"

Just like with the ship's comm-system, he got no reply. Whether that was because Dinobot was refusing to answer or her frequency was being jammed by something, Rattrap had no way of telling.

"Uh oh…" he murmured. That bad feeling in his fuel tank grew worse. He felt a cold chill of premonition shoot down the length of his spinal column.

Switching on the ship's long distance scanners, he inserted her lover's energy signal into the search key and watched with ill-contained dread as the Axalon searched the surrounding terrain for the missing warrioress.

"Comm'on, comm'on, comm'on, hurry _up_!" he snarled, drumming his finger agitatedly against the computer station. In his arms, Switchblade squirmed at the noise. Rattrap distractedly patted the sparkling's back to calm him. Staring at the computer screen, he struggled to keep calm despite his mounting dread. If he knew his headstrong lover at all, he had a feeling she was planning to do something extremely stupid.

Finally the computer chirped with a result. Rattrap anxiously leaned forward in his seat. The scanner's readout screen filled with a digitized overhead view of the land. A blinking red dot appeared on the screen's far right-hand side, about half a dozen miles outside of Maximal territory, within spitting distance of Megatron's downed warship, the Darksyde.

_Oh, slag…_

Dinobot was in Predacon territory. That could mean on one thing: she was going to try and get the gold disks back from Megatron.

"That _stupid_ lizard!" Rattrap cried, his emotions fluctuating wildly back and forth between dread, outrage, confusion and panic. "I knew I shouldn't ov' trusted her not ta do something like dis!"

Startled by his father's angry yell, Switchblade woke with a start and gave a long keening wail of distress.

Rattrap couldn't spare any time to calm his son, and dashed from the room as quickly as he could. The sparkling's cries echoed down the long metal halls all the way back to the crew's sleeping quarters. Rattrap skid to a stop in front of one of the doors and frantically pounded on it with the side of his fist.

_Come on, come on, come on, I don't have time ta wait, _he chanted, almost dancing in place with agitation.

Switchblade was still squirming and chirping angrily in his audio when Airazor finally opened the door several moments later. "Rattrap?" the flier muttered. Her optics were still half-glazed with sleep and her feathers mussed. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"Can you watch Switch fer me?" he blurted out without any kind of introduction. He desperately held the screaming sparkling out for her to take. "Please. Yer da only one I trust with him an' der's something really important I have to take care of."

"I - ah, yes, of course," Airazor said, finally taking Switchblade from him with a confused look. The sparkling almost instantly quieted. With a whimpered chirp, he curled against her breastplate and tucked his head under her chin. "But what's going on that you have to-?"

"No time ta explain," Rattrap said, already turning away from the door. "But let's just say I got a bad feelin' dat Bronto Brain is about ta do something really stupid…"

* * *

Dinobot scouted around the side of large volcanic rock, making sure to keep her body low to the ground. She had no desire to be spotted by unwanted eyes. Several hundred feet away in the distance, the Darksyde sat perched above a concentric series of active lava flows like a hulking black carrion bird of death. For the last thirty klicks she'd been watching the ship but hadn't seen any sign of Predacon movement anywhere in the surrounding area. The warrioress's optics narrowed, her facial plates pinching together in a troubled expression. This wasn't right. Even if Megatron had his entire crew sequestered onboard, she still should have been able to see some sign of activity through the ship's windows. Yet since arriving she'd seen no sign of any patrol groups coming or going, stationed guards or even signs of heightened security from the Darksyde's automated defenses. For all intents and purposes the ship appeared deserted.

The warrioress growled deep under her breath. Something wasn't right. Megatron should be there. With both gold disks the warlord had to be in the process of putting whatever he was planning into action. Unless… Megatron was already on the move. That would explain the lack of movement onboard the Predacons' warship and the eerie absence of any resistance to her approach. Gripping her sword tighter, Dinobot rose off her knees into a low crouch. She had to try and get closer to see if she could find any clues as to what Megatron was planning. Now that Megatron had both gold disks, there was no saying how he might use them.

Just as the raptor was about to dart out from behind her cover towards the next nearest bolder, however, the soft but frighteningly deadly click of a blaster gun being cocked directly behind her made Dinobot instinctively freeze in place.

"Ha ha ha!" an odiously familiar voice cackled behind her. "It would appear Megatron was right to leave me behind to keep a lookout on the ship for any unwanted visitors. He had a feeling you'd eventually come sneaking around for that gold disk you lost. You always were such a poor loser."

"Tarantulas," Dinobot snarled with no small amount of loathing in her voice.

The deranged scientist chuckled, setting Dinobot's neural sensors on edge. "Drop your sword," he ordered. He took a step closer and pressed the barrel of his blaster against the back of Dinobot's helm.

With a deep growl, the warrioress reluctantly did as she was ordered. Her sword clattered to the soft volcanic ground with a dull thud.

Tarantulas laughed in triumph and pressed his gun harder to the back of Dinobot's head. The warrioress grit her teeth against the sharp sting of pressure.

"I suppose I shouldn't even bother asking why you came here, should I?' Tarantulas asked.

"No," Dinobot snarled. "It is no secret that I came to stop Megatron from doing whatever it is he is planning with those gold disks."

Tarantulas gave a nasty twitter. The blaster pressed against Dinobot's head shook with the force of his amusement. "As you might have noticed, Megatron is no longer here. You are already too late. He left hours ago along with everyone else."

"What is he planning?" Dinobot demanded. One of Tarantulas's many weaknesses was his habit to gloat whenever he thought he had the upper hand. If she could just keep him talking she might be able to find out everything she needed to know without having to dirty her sword or break onboard the Predacon ship.

Just as expected, the scientist was more than eager to explain the layout of her former commander's plans. "As you've probably already figured out since that quantum surge almost a year ago, this is planet Earth. Megatron's calculations were correct despite our initial belief that we'd landed on the wrong planet. Assuming your history is up to date you might remember that Earth is where the last few deciding battles of the Great War were fought between the Autobots and our own ancestors the Decepticons."

"Of course I remember my history," Dinobot spat. "Planet Earth was where the Decepticons, led by the original Megatron, were finally defeated by Optimus Prime and the Autobots and forced into the second-class status Predacons today still suffer. You've told me nothing so far I didn't already know or figured out myself. Tell me how Megatron is planning to use those gold disks."

Tarantulas cackled softly through his air vents, obviously enjoying the female warrior's confusion. "What you forget from your history lessons is that the Autobots were not alone in their fight against the Decepticons. They were aided by the native inhabitants of this planet, the humans. Without their help it is very possible the Autobots never would have won the Great War."

"What are you saying?" Dinobot said, turning her head just enough to look at Tarantulas out of the corner of her optic. "That Megatron plans to somehow use the disks to change the outcome of the Great War?"

"Precisely," Tarantulas crooned. "By studying the gold disks, Megatron has discovered that history as we know it is not static. It is changeable. _Extremely_ changeable, actually. Just the smallest disruption can change the entire course of history as we know it. At this current point in Earth's known timeline, humans are little more than half-evolved apes that walk around on their knuckles and communicate through inarticulate grunts. Megatron has tracked the early humans to a particular valley several hundred miles from here and plans to exterminate them before they ever get the chance to evolve and cause trouble for the Decepticons when the Great War breaks out several million years from now."

Dinobot knelt on the rocky ground, stunned speechless by everything Tarantulas had just said. Megatron was planning to change the very course of history as they knew it. This was beyond anything she'd originally feared. This went beyond Megatron simply defeating the Maximals and returning to Cybertron to build an army and start a second war. This was something that would affect countless lives over untold numbers of generations - and in this particular case wipe an entire species from the pages of history.

"This cannot happen," Dinobot murmured. "Megatron cannot be allowed to succeed. There is no way anyone can say what will happen for sure if the timeline is altered in such a way."

"Hm, I suppose you're right, but at this point it doesn't matter," Tarantulas said with a derisive laugh. "Megatron is already miles away by now and there is nothing you can do to catch up to him."

"Oh really?" Dinobot said; then in a single move too fast for Tarantulas to even realize what was happening, the warrioress surged to her pedes and lunged at the startled arachnid with a fearsome battle cry. Tarantulas didn't even have time to squeeze off a round before his gun was brutally batted out of his hand by the raptor's fist, grabbed by the throat and slammed upright against the bolder Dinobot had originally been hiding behind.

Frantically clawing at the vice-like fingers suddenly choking off the fluid lines in his neck, Tarantulas stared up at Dinobot in unmasked terror.

Dinobot slowly leaned closer to stare him in the optics. "What direction is this valley the early humans reside in?" she asked in a dangerously calm voice. She eased her grip on Tarantulas's throat just enough for him to answer.

"T-to the northeast!" the arachnid gasped. "Sector Psi-beta 7! Coordinates 27-89-03! But like I said, Megatron is already half a day ahead of you. You'll never catch up to him!"

Dinobot frowned. If Tarantulas was telling the truth about how much of a lead Megatron had, she had very little chance of being able to catch up with him before he reached the valley. Her raptor form was fast, but not nearly fast enough to cover that kind of distance in the time she had. If only she had wheels. With a wheeled mode like Rattrap's she could cover that distance in a few hours. She still remembered when he'd carried her on his back back to base after her first fight with Talon. The trip had been mostly a blur due to the amount of fluid loss she'd been suffering, but…

Dinobot glanced back at Tarantulas with a new look of consideration. An evil smile slowly spread across her face. The arachnid didn't seem to like the gleam in the warrioress's optics and instinctively cowered back from her against the rock, his body hunkered and radiating fear.

"Your beast-mode has a wheeled alt-mode, doesn't it?" she asked, already aware of the answer.

The scientist gave a timid nod.

"Then I think I just found my ride," she said with a devilish smirk.

Several minutes later found the two speeding away - Dinobot perched on the top of Tarantulas' back with the barrel of his own gun pressed to the back of his head…

Please Review! Any thoughts on Dinobot's goodbye scenes?


	22. The Valley

Thanks so much for all the well wishes. I'm feeling better, and besides having to take a pill a day for the next six months and the occasional blood test I should be alright. *fingers crossed*

**Chapter Twenty-Two****: The Valley**

Megatron stood on the edge of a high cliff ledge. A hundred feet below, a wide river valley spread out before him all the way to the opposite mountain several miles away. In the west, the sun was beginning its downward slope towards the horizon. It's fading light painted the quiet river basin a deep golden hue. The valley floor was almost invisible the tree canopy was so thick. Exotic bird calls trilled from every corner of the valley, punctuated every now and then by the low, guttural cry of an unseen primate.

The warlord grinned, barely able to contain his excitement. Finally. After months of plotting, all his hard work was about to come to fruition. With both gold disks back in his possession he'd finally been able to test his theory on altering a known timeline. It hadn't been that hard to test really. All he'd had to do was have Rampage aim his missile launcher in the direction of a mountain whose outline was suspiciously familiar to one of the symbols etched into one of the gold disks, and watch as the alien symbol shimmered and changed before his very optics to the mountain's new cratered outline. He had physically changed history! It had been so simple to do, and the possibilities of him using that knowledge in other ways was almost limitless.

_Within reason_, Megatron quickly corrected himself. Yes, the possibilities offered by the gold disks were staggering. But, like with everything else in the world, there was a catch. He would only have one chance to do this correctly. Any failure on his part could result in history happening the exact same way it did the first time with no change. _No,_ Megatron thought with a bitter frown. _I will let that happen. I will not let the Autobots win the Great War a second time. At least not with the help of their organic friends…_

Somewhere far below him he heard a primate call echo through the jungle. Several seconds later another voice answered it, this one not far away from Megatron's vantage point.

Megatron grinned. Yes. This was it. This was the beginning of the end for both the Autobots and Maximals. Without the humans' help it was unlikely the Autobots ever would have been able to defeat his namesake, the original Megatron, and win the Great War. With the humans wiped from the face of the planet and the records of history itself, the Decepticons would have no trouble overrunning this planet and later Cybertron in their quest for galactic conquest. All that stood in the way of future Predacon glory was a bunch of pre-evolved monkeys. And Megatron would damn himself to the Pit if he was going to pass up an opportunity to put those peace-loving Maximals in their rightful place below the Predacons…

"Talon," he called over his shoulder. Almost instantly, the transmetal femme was by his side. Not far behind her stood the rest of Megatron's forces, including the last three cyber-raptors of Talon's pack.

"Yes, my lord?"

"Prepare the first wave of attack. There is to be no mercy to anything in this valley. I don't want a single life form left alive when we're finished."

Talon's facial plates twisted into a malevolent grin. "As you command, my lord. It shall be done." With a quick command, she transformed into her raptor form. The three cyber-raptors instantly sprang to their mistress's side, snapping their teeth and dancing in place with excitement. Their anticipation for the coming hunt was almost palpable in the air.

"Go," Megatron said, gesturing with his chin towards the valley. "Let the ground run red with the blood of our future enemies."

"Yes, my lord," Talon said. With a fearsome roar, the female raptor darted over the side of the cliff, leaping from ledge to ledge down its side until she finally came to the bottom. Her pack of cyber-raptors swiftly followed after her. Almost instantly they were lost from view behind the dense cover of treetops. Within minutes Megatron heard the first of what was sure to be many screams echo up out of the valley. As he listened in gleeful delight the screams became louder and more numerous as warnings of his hunters' presence was spread through the forest. Every so often he would hear the screams of a proto-human abrupt cut off and replaced by the shrill hunting cry of a velociraptor.

Megatron grinned and turned to the rest of his men. "Second attack wave go! Kill everything that moves! I don't want a single human left alive!"

"Sure thing, boss!" Quickstrike said and leapt over the edge of the cliff.

"As you command, royalty!" Inferno bowed.

Within moments, the ledge was empty except for Megatron. Below him the cries of frightened proto-humans screamed louder. Fires appeared here and there beneath the forest canopy. Their flickering orange glow shined brightly in the descending twilight. Waspinator and Terrorsaur rained firepower down onto the valley from above while below the rest of his men fanned out across the valley to destroy all of its inhabitants in synchronized brutality. The sound of rapid machine gun fire and shrill velociraptor hunting cries echoed like veritable music to the warlord's audios.

Victory was all but theirs…

* * *

"How much farther?" Dinobot demanded as Tarantulas sped around a sharp corner, almost tipping her off his back. She clutched the back of his shoulder tighter and pressed the barrel of the arachnid's own gun harder against the back of his head. The sun had just dipped below the horizon. All that remained of it was a faint glow of orange along the western edge of the horizon. They'd been traveling for more than several hours and it was beginning to get hard to see.

"Not much farther," Tarantulas said. "We should be coming within sight of it soon."

Just as the spider said, Dinobot saw a large valley nestled between several snow-capped mountains appear in the distance through the settling darkness of night. The valley appeared lush and densely vegetated - a perfect place for a species of bi-pedal primates to flourish. As Dinobot squinted into the headwind she noticed the glow of several small-scale fires burning at different points along the eastern edge of the valley. Thick pillars of smoke snaked up into the sky above the trees, their underbellies lit by the orange glow of the fires below. Although she couldn't be one hundred percent certain, she thought she saw two figures darting back and forth between the smoke columns in the air.

_Terrorsaur and Waspinator_, she realized with a snarl. So Megatron was there just as she had feared. He had already begun his assault on the valley. She had to hurry and stop them before too much damage was done and history as they knew it was irrevocably changed forever.

Unfortunately, Dinobot was so engrossed in making a plan of attack that she didn't notice Tarantulas suddenly veer towards a deep hole in the ground several yards in front of them. They hit it straight on going at least fifty miles an hour.

Dinobot was almost jettisoned off Tarantulas's back by the force of the impact. She just barely managed to keep herself from being thrown by grabbing the back of Tarantulas's neck and sinking the raptor claws on her feet into his back plating. The arachnid squealed in pain. His back wheels almost skidded out from under him. Snarling, the warrioress pressed the gun harder against the back of his head to remind him of who had the upper hand. He shakily regained control and continued onward. "Do that again, insect, and I will take your head off without a second thought. Now that we are so close to the valley, your assistance is no longer vital to me."

"Is that so?" Tarantulas asked in a snide voice. "Then I suppose now is as good a time as any to do this!"

Before Dinobot could brace herself the transmetal spider suddenly swung hard to the left, his right wheels actually lifting off the ground he cut so sharply. The raptor flew from his back like a thrown rag doll and hit the ground with a jarring crunch. Tarantulas's blaster went flying from her hand. She didn't see where it landed. Shaking her helm to regain her senses, the warrioress quickly pushed herself back to her pedes and turned to the last place she had seen Tarantulas. Her lips were pulled back from her teeth in a fearsome snarl. She was going to make the spider _pay_ for that.

Tarantulas had already transformed back into his bi-pedal form and had all eight gun barrels of his spider legs aimed at her by the time she righted herself. He chuckled merrily at Dinobot's angry expression. "Bet you weren't expecting that, were you, traitor?"

"You will pay dearly for that little stunt," Dinobot growled.

Tarantulas shook his head. "As I already told you, you're too late. You can't stop Megatron. He's already begun the attack. The humans won't last the night. They'll all be dead by sunrise tomorrow. Once he is done, the Autobots will no longer have anyone to help them in the Great War. The Decepticons - and along with them the Predacons - will rule the universe!"

The raptor snorted. "We'll see about that." Faster than Tarantulas could open fire, Dinobot activated her optic lasers and sent twin beams of emerald green light blasting into the scientist's chest. Tarantulas was knocked off his pedes and hit the ground hard. A shower of white-hot electrical sparks arched up out of the charred hole in the middle of his chest as Dinobot cautiously approached, her optics still glowing green in anticipation of a surprise attack. The Predacon scientist, however, did not move, even when she kicked him sharply in the side just to be sure. Tarantulas was offline. And for at least the next several hours from what Dinobot could tell.

Deactivating her optic lasers, Dinobot glanced back in the direction of the valley. It was perhaps two, maybe three, miles away from her current position. The fires had gained power since she first spotted them and now spread across the entire eastern length of the valley. She had to hurry. But there was no way she'd be able to defeat Megatron and his men all by herself.

Reaching up to the side of her helm she tapped her comm-link open to all Maximal frequencies. "Dinobot to all Maximals. Come in. Over."

"_Axalon here. Dinobot, where are you? You've been gone all day._"

Dinobot recognized the voice as belonging to Optimus, but ignored the question. She didn't have any time to waste. "I am in need of immediate backup. Megatron is in the process of attacking a valley in sector Psi-Beta 7. He has tracked early ancestors of _homo sapiens_ here to this valley in an attempt to alter history by eradicating modern day humans so that they can never aide the Autobots in the Great War several million years from now."

"_Wait. What is this about humans and Megatron? Please repeat!"_ Optimus sounded more panicked than confused about what she'd just said. Dinobot thought she heard several other voices worriedly talking behind Optimus on the other side of the line.

"Megatron will kill all the proto-humans in this valley if he is not stopped," Dinobot went on. "I have already removed Tarantulas from the fight, but Megatron has brought every other Predacon under his command with him. I will distract them until backup arrives. Current coordinates are 27-89-03. Heavy firepower is highly suggested."

Optimus's voice crackled over the line urgent and distressed. "_Dinobot, no! Fall back and wait for reinforcements! You cannot take on Megatron and his men by yourself. We're leaving now. Do not engage until we arrive!"_

"Negative," the warrioress shook her head. "You will not reach here in time. I will do my best to delay them until you arrive."

"_No!_" Optimus shouted, his voice almost pleading. "_Do not engage! That's an-"_

Dinobot flicked off the comm-link line before he could finish the thought. Turning back towards the burning valley, the warrioress unsheathed her sword from her back. "I am sorry, Optimus," she murmured. "But this is one order I cannot follow. I am a warrior and the war has already begun. To stand back and watch as innocent lives are slaughtered would be a dishonor worse than defeat on the battlefield."

Then gripping her sword tight, Dinobot took off at a run in the direction of the valley.

* * *

Rattrap's axle joints burned as he forced his wheels to churn faster. The miles flew past him in a dizzying blur. He'd been following Dinobot's energy signature for the last several hours. When he'd first set his scanners to find her, he'd detected her deep inside Predacon territory near the Darksyde. But almost immediately after he'd left the Axalon to go after his missing lover, Dinobot's energy signature had suddenly took off at high speed towards the northeast. He'd been tracking her ever since and as of yet he still hadn't been able to catch up with her. Night was swiftly descending over the land. The sky was already a sheet of inky black overhead punched through with millions of tiny, silvery white dots.

He had to find Dinobot. And soon! Only several minutes before he'd picked up her mass message to the Maximals warning them of Megatron's plans. The stupid lizard was planning to take on Megatron and all his men by herself. That stupid, stupid headstrong femme! What was she thinking? Was she _trying_ to get herself killed?

Rattrap chose not to answer that question. He had a sinking feeling he didn't want to know the answer. Dinobot had been acting strange the night before. At the time he'd chosen to ignore her fatalistic talk as the warrioress merely trying to work out her confused emotions, but now he wondered if she hadn't already begun planning this encounter with Megatron as some kind of final fight-to-the-death showdown. For some reason that seemed like something Dinobot would do…

_Not if I can help it_, Rattrap told himself and pushed his wheels to turn faster. There was no way he was going to let Dinobot run into battle to get herself killed if he had anything to say about it. He was going to stop her and bring her back alive to their son even if it killed him. He'd become too attached to the bad-tempered femme to just let her go and off herself in some misguided attempt to fulfill some antiquated sense of duty. He liked her too much to let her go without a fight. If for no other reason than to save his son the pain of having to grow up without a mother like he had to, he wasn't going to let Dinobot do this alone. He was bringing her back home with him whether she liked it or not.

Rattrap checked his internal chronometer. He'd been chasing Dinobot for more than five hours. How she'd managed to cover so much ground by herself the spy didn't know. The warrioress's raptor form was frighteningly fast when she had open space to run, but even that couldn't explain the vast tracks of land she'd been able to cover since she'd left the Darksyde's perimeter. He should have caught up to her miles ago. Yet she'd been able to keep ahead of him for the last five hours. If the spy hadn't known better he would have almost said that the raptor had suddenly sprouted wheels; which was ridiculous. No matter how she'd managed to maintain such speed, though, there was no denying the impressive lead she'd been able to keep on him despite Rattrap's best attempts to catch up with her. He estimated she had at least a five mile head start on him.

Making sure to keep his heading straight, the spy took a moment to recheck his internal scanners for his lover's energy signal for at least the fifth time in the last half hour. There was no denying the steadily mounting panic he felt. He knew Dinobot was planning something. It would have been too much for him to be able to expect her to just let what happened with her, Talon and Switchblade go without feeling like she had to die in order to correct some breech in her convoluted sense of honor.

_Ya just couldn't of found some nice sane femme ta settle down with, could'ja? Naw. Ya hadta go an' fall fer possibly da deadlist femme ta ever come online with a certified death wish encoded inta her personality drives. Primus help us all if Switch takes after dat crazy lizard when he gets older…_

As Rattrap tuned his sensors in on his lover's energy signature, though, he was surprised to find that Dinobot was no longer moving and had come to a stop only several miles ahead of his current position.

_Thank Primus_, the spy thought with a surge of relief. That relief didn't last for long, though, as he came around a small hill and came within sight of large valley surrounded on three sides by mountains in the distance. Rattrap unconsciously skid to a halt and stared. One fifth of the valley was engulfed in flames. Even from a mile or more away he could hear the echo of distance gunfire and laser blasts.

"Looks like I didn't miss da party after all," Rattrap muttered. Revving his engines, the spy's wheels spun in the loose dirt for a moment before finally gaining traction and jolting him forward. If Dinobot was anywhere in the area she was going to be where the gunfire was the loudest and the fighting most vicious.

Speeding across the remaining space to the valley, the spy ran headlong into the thickening brush of the forest. Within minutes he was deep inside the valley. The patter of distant gunfire was strangely muted in the thick maze of trees and giant ferns. Rattrap was still able to make out the sound of distant fires, laser discharges, rapid-fire bullets and more distinct than anything else: screams.

"Where are ya, Lizard Lips?" Rattrap muttered as he checked his internal scanner for his lover's energy signature again. It detected Dinobot several hundred yards ahead of him to the west. Rattrap revved his engines and took off in her direction.

The forest was unnervingly dark. The only source of light was weak beams of moonlight that somehow managed to pierce the thick canopy of tree branches overhead. Rattrap could barely even see ten feet ahead of him. His optic sensors were having difficulty distinguishing between what were shadows and what were solid objects. More than once he almost drove headfirst into a downed log or have his wheels wrenched out of his frame from a ditch he hadn't been able to see in time to avoid. Wet fern leaves continually slapped him in the face as he raced through the dangerous obstacle course of trees and plants. Mud covered the entire lower half of his chassis. He didn't want to think about what kind of stuff he was going to have to dig out of his joints once he got back to base.

_Dat darn lizard better still be alive when I find her, 'cause if she's not-_

The spy's angry musing was cut off by the sudden fluid-freezing screech of a dying creature somewhere in front of him. Whatever had made that sound wasn't like anything Rattrap had ever heard before. It had sounded like something straight out of one of Cheetor's horror films or someone's worst nightmare. Rattrap forced himself faster. Whatever that was definitely hadn't been Dinobot, but he had a feeling he'd find the warrioress somewhere nearby.

A break in the trees appeared up ahead. The spy thought he saw a small, moonlit clearing beyond. Speeding towards it, Rattrap crashed through a thick clump of giant ferns into open space. In a single motion the spy skid to a halt and transformed, his gun already in his hand. As he righted himself and took stock of his surroundings he saw that his earlier assumptions had been correct: Dinobot was there. At the warrioress's feet was the dismembered remains of a cyber-raptor. Dinobot's sword was stained to the hilt with cyber-fluid and bits of the velociraptor's internal wiring. The warrioress spun around towards the spy as he crashed into the clearing, her lips pulled back from her teeth in a snarl and her optics glowing green.

"Whoa! Don't shoot! It's me!" Rattrap cried, holding his hands up in front his chest.

Dinobot relaxed. Her optics slowly faded back to their normal red. For a moment it seemed the warrioress wasn't sure whether to be more surprised or angry at Rattrap's unexpected arrival. "Vermin? What are you doing here? There's no way you could have arrived here that fast. I sent that message for reinforcements out less than twenty minutes ago."

Rattrap snorted and came closer to stand beside Dinobot. "I should be da one askin' why _yer_ out here like dis. I've been followin' ya all day! Wha' are ya doin' out here?"

"You heard my message to Optimus," the raptor growled back at him. "You know what is at stake. My original plan was to go to the Darksyde, retrieve the gold disks and destroy them - most likely at the cost of my own life. But I happened to come across Tarantulas in the process of infiltrating the ship and learned of Megatron's plans here in this valley."

"An' ya decided ta do all dis without tellin' anyone or askin' fer backup before travelin' several hundred miles out to da middle of nowhere?"

"I do not have to explain myself to you, Rodent," Dinobot snarled. "This is a matter of honor. What I am doing here is to ensure the survival of not only an entire species and all of known history, but also the promise that our son still has a future to live come dawn tomorrow."

Rattrap groped for a comeback. There was no denying the importance of the fight his lover was waging, but at the same time the warrioress's brash sense of self-confidence in her abilities made him want to physically bash her over the head and drag her back to base where he could lock her up for the next few stellar cycles for her own good. "Well, yer not gonna fight alone!" he finally settled on. "I'm not gonna let ya go an' get yerself killed just 'cause you were too proud ta wait fer help."

Dinobot at first seemed ready to argue, but then seemed to think better of it. Rattrap didn't need to remind her how badly the odds were of her defeating Megatron and his men even with Rattrap there to help her. "Very well. But do not get in my way."

Rattrap glanced at the motionless cyber-raptor laying on the ground several yards away. "How many of dem are left?"

Dinobot glanced at the downed velociraptor with a sneer. "That is the second raptor of Talon's pack I've managed to take out of the fight. There is still at least one left, along with Megatron and the rest of his men."

Rattrap frowned. Two cyber-raptors down, along with Tarantulas. That left only eight enemy combatants against the two of them.

_Odds definitely aren't in our favor here_, the spy thought with a grimace.

"Come," Dinobot said, motioning with her chin back towards the forest. "We do not have time to stand around here talking. Megatron's men are moving fast. They mean to destroy this entire valley. We have to hurry."

"Lead da way, razor maw."

Together the two delved back into the jungle. Rattrap didn't bother to ask where Dinobot was heading. He could hear the sound of gunfire in the distance. As the two wove their way through the shadow-draped forest Rattrap suddenly caught the faint sound of buzzing somewhere above them over the sound of explosions and gunfire. Dinobot also heard it and quickly pressed herself against the side of a large tree for cover. Rattrap squeezed himself beside her in a deep pocket of shadows.

"Wha' is dat?" he asked in a hushed whisper.

Dinobot's optics scanned the small patch of night sky that was visible through the leafy boughs of the trees. "More than likely Waspinator and Terrorsaur."

Just as she predicted, several seconds later the two fliers appeared overhead a few dozen yards from Rattrap and Dinobot's position. They came to a stop and hovered less than a hundred feet above the ground, shooting their weapons randomly down into the forest and laughing in delight as the cries of frightened proto-humans echoed up through the trees into the night.

Rattrap carefully edged closer to Dinobot. "Think we can take 'em?" he whispered to her.

Dinobot gave a curt nod, her optics narrowed at the two fliers in disgust. "You aim for Waspinator. I'll take Terrorsaur," she whispered back.

Rattrap nodded and took aim with his blaster. Through the darkness he heard the hum of Dinobot's optic-lasers powering up. "On da count of three we take 'em out. No use in one of us missin' an' lettin' one of 'em warn da rest we're here."

"If that were to happen, I would not be the one who would miss, Rodent," Dinobot said.

The spy snorted under his breath. "We'll see 'bout dat, Lizard Lips." Shuttering one optic to site down the length of his blaster, Rattrap held his arm out and took aim. "Ready. One… two… three!"

Two green laser beams and one plasma blast of red simultaneously shot up through the tree canopy and struck Terrorsaur and Waspinator in the back. Neither flier even had a chance to cry out or react before they were plummeting to the earth. The hollow crunch of their bodies hitting the ground echoed through forest all the way back to Rattrap and Dinobot.

"Direct hit!" Rattrap crowed in triumph. He glanced at Dinobot with a smug grin. "We don't make dat bad of a team, do we?"

The warrioress, however, did not share the spy's excitement. "Do not rejoice just yet, Vermin. We still have six more Predacons to defeat before we can call this battle ours."

Rattrap instantly sobered. He'd almost forgotten. A long, hard battle still stretched out ahead of them. Until reinforcements arrived, their fight was far from over.

"Come," Dinobot said, starting off in the direction of gunfire and screams again. "Time is short and our enemies are many."

"Like I hadta be reminded," Rattrap grumbled as he hurried after her.

As the two wove through the forest the glow of fires began to illuminate their path more and more. Rattrap was uncomfortably aware of the rising temperature the closer they got to the razed section of the valley. Walls of flames leapt up over the tops of the trees and danced against the inky backdrop of the sky. Papery flakes of charred gray plant matter wafted along the smoky breeze. Numerous forest creatures including several screaming proto-humans - almost all of them burnt or cradling some sort of injury - raced past Rattrap and Dinobot in the opposite direction they'd just come. The sound of gunfire was getting louder. Suddenly, several hundred yards ahead of them Rattrap spotted Inferno through the smoking maze of trees. As they drew closer, he heard the laughter of his least favorite Predacon, Quickstrike, join in with the fire ant's own psychotic merriment.

"So wha's da plan?" Rattrap yelled over the crackle of burning trees as he and Dinobot raced towards the two.

"No plan!" Dinobot yelled back over her shoulder. "Only to attack with extreme prejudice!"

Rattrap couldn't think of a better alternative to his lover's plan and followed her lead when she opened fire on them with her optic lasers a few seconds later. Neither Predacon was expecting such an attack. Before Inferno could protect himself Dinobot launched herself at him with a fearsome battle cry. Her fist came around and buried itself into the side of the fire ant's face. His flame thrower went sailing out of his hand. Cocking her hand back a second time, the warrioress dealt Inferno a second savage blow to the face. His cranial unit spun around over his shoulder so that he now stared directly behind him. The fire ant croaked an angry sound before his optics suddenly went black and his body sagged motionless to the ground at Dinobot's feet.

On the other side of the clearing, Rattrap darted out from behind a tree and fired off several rounds at Quickstrike. The fuzor managed to duck out of the line of fire and fired off several shots of his own in Rattrap's direction. His aim was off, however, and harmlessly exploded against a tree half a dozen feet to Rattrap's right. Quickstrike turned and tried to run for cover behind some trees.

"Aw, no ya don't!" Rattrap yelled after him. "I still owe ya fer dat lil' sneak attack ya pulled on me da last time we fought!" Reaching into his forearm compartments, the spy pulled out a grenade. He flicked on the charge with his thumb, wound it up back over his shoulder and sent it sailing through the air after the retreating fuzor. "Here's fer almost makin' me miss my kid's birthday!"

The blast was almost instantaneous. For a moment Quickstrike's body was outlined against a backdrop of brilliant white. Then he was flying through the air before colliding with a satisfying crunch against the trunk of a giant tree. The fuzor slowly slid down the length of the tree and collapsed in a jumbled heap at its base, unconscious.

Rattrap laughed with vicious glee. "Whoever said payback's not a bitch?" he smirked.

"I must admit I never took you for the vengeful type," Dinobot said from the other side of the clearing. She glanced at Quickstrike's burnt and twisted remains. "It would appear that even after all this time you can still surprise me."

Rattrap turned to the warrioress and gave her a sly smirk. "If ya've learned anything 'bout me by now it should be dat dis rat's full of surprises." Growing serious again, the spy glanced between the two downed Predacons. "Ya know, I don't wanna jinx us or anything, but I can't help but feel dat all dis has almost been too easy so far."

Dinobot opened her mouth to answer. But before she had any chance to speak, she was cut off by a deafening roar directly behind Rattrap followed immediately by a tremendous weight slamming into the spy's back. Rattrap was knocked off his feet and sent flying half a dozen yards before hitting the ground with an audible crunch. The entire right side of his body exploded with pain. For a moment he couldn't move. He felt completely paralyzed. It felt like he'd just been run over by a runaway shuttlecraft. A warm stickiness was slowly spreading across his lower back.

"Vermin!" Dinobot cried from the other side of the clearing. "Get up!"

"I would suggest the rodent stay where he is if he doesn't wish to meet a gruesome end," a second voice growled frighteningly close to him.

Feeling was slowly returning to Rattrap. The pain helped him focus on what he needed to do. He recognized the voice that had just spoke. It belonged to the one bot he'd been hoping he wouldn't have to meet in battle tonight. Pulling his limbs under him he shakily pushed himself back up to his pedes. Fiery pain ran across the small of his back. He didn't need to look behind him or feel at the wound to know he'd taken a nasty cut when he'd been body slammed.

"Well, well, well, if it ain't ol' Grapeface's pet knife drawer," he said as he turned to face Talon. The transmetal femme stood several yards away in her raptor form. The toe-claw on her left foot glistened in the firelight with wet mech-fluid. "I was wonderin' if I was gonna get ta see ya tonight. I have a lil' gripe ta pick with you. See, I don't like anyone messin' with my kid, an' you've gone an' messed with him 'bout da worse way ya could've."

Talon glared at the spy and hissed. "I do not care about whatever grievances you have with me about your half-breed progeny. You and the traitor are interfering in Lord Megatron's plans."

"It's not our fault Megatron's goons can only go up against unarmed primates who can't fight back," Rattrap threw back at her. "If ya ask me, he should look inta findin' better help."

With an angry hiss, Talon transformed and glared at him with her one optic. Her finger blades danced with the light of the fires raging around them. "It will not take anyone else than me to dispose of you two and permanently rid Lord Megatron of anymore of your annoying interferences."

Dinobot stepped closer, her body language threatening and her sword held ready for battle. "Do not underestimate us," she snarled through bared teeth.

"No," Rattrap said. "I'll take care of Fang Face. You go find Megatron an' stop him. He's da one with da gold disks. None of dis'll be truly over 'til we destroy those disks."

Dinobot didn't move. She stared at Rattrap with a hesitant expression. If Rattrap didn't know better he would have almost said she looked frightened for him. "Go!" he insisted. "I can take care of Talon, but yer da only one who can stop Megs." Dinobot still seemed reluctant to leave him with her transmetal clone. "Go! We don't have time ta be standin' around here arguing!"

The threat of time encroaching on the success of their mission seemed to finally rattle the warrioress out of her daze. "Fine. But do not get yourself killed, Vermin. That is a treat reserved explicitly for me."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Rattrap chuckled at their long-standing inside joke. "I'll try ta remember, Lizard Lips."

Dinobot cast him one last hesitant look, then turned and disappeared back into the burning forest in search of the Predacon warlord.

Rattrap turned back to Talon. "Looks like it's just you an' me now, ugly."

Talon sneered. "Do not think for a moment you have any chance of defeating me and reuniting with my treacherous sister. You are as good as dead."

"We'll see 'bout dat." Rattrap gripped his blaster tighter. He made sure to let Talon see its reflective gleam in the firelight.

The transmetal femme, however, seemed unimpressed by the spy's weapon. For with a high-pitched hunting roar she lunged at the smaller bot, her finger blades poised to inflict massive damage. Rattrap fired several plasma rounds. Talon darted back and forth as she rushed ever closer to him across the clearing. The blasts harmlessly zipped past her, peppering the ground behind her with charred black circles.

_Oh slag._

Talon was suddenly directly in front of him. She cocked one hand back in a tight fist and sent it flying into Rattrap's face with the grace of a battering ram. The spy flew backwards and smashed into the side of a large tree. He didn't fall to the ground, but for a moment he wondered if he would have been able to stand by himself without the tree to help hold him up. Unfortunately, Rattrap didn't get any time to recover from Talon's blow before she was coming at him again with murder in her optic. Moving purely on instinct, Rattrap reached over his shoulder and pulled the steel whip that doubled as his beast-mode's tail from his back. As Talon came within the last few feet of him he snapped it at the transmetal femme's one foot. The length of sectioned steel spun around Talon's ankle. Wrenching the whip backwards with every ounce of strength he had, Rattrap pulled Talon's foot out from under her and sent her crashing to the ground.

"Heh heh!" Rattrap crowed. "Da bigger dey are, da harder dey fall!"

Talon roared with fury and was almost instantly back on her feet. Her optic burned with rage. Rattrap had enough sense to be frightened. The raptor lunged at him. Rattrap tried to bring his gun up fast enough to ward off her attack, but before he could he felt a burning line of pain rip across the front of his chest. Knocked backwards by the blow, Rattrap lay stunned on his back. Pain the likes of which he'd never felt before shot down into his chest and encased his sparkchamber in cocoon of fiery agony. Reaching up with one hand he fingered the front of his chest. His fingers were coated with mech-fluid when he pulled them away.

"Aw, slag…" he gurgled in a watery voice. The wound was deep. Three perpendicular slash marks went all the way down through his chest plate and internal wiring to his sparkchamber. Each intake sent numbing waves of pain shooting across his chest. A frightening weakness had begun to spread across his chest and down the lengths of his arms. "Aw, _slag_."

"Slag indeed," Talon intoned several feet away. Her facial plates were bright with triumph. "That is more than likely a mortal blow. I can see your spark already beginning to sputter." Slowly coming to stand over Rattrap, the femme stared down at him. "I am not without mercy, however. I did inherit some of my sister's code of honor when Megatron created me. To leave an enemy combatant dying on the battlefield goes against my sense of honor. I will do you a favor and put you out of your misery instead of making you lay here and endure a long and agonizing demise."

"Well, aren't you just an angel," Rattrap spat at her. His voice was weak even to his own audios.

Talon smirked and flexed her finger blades. Their sharpened edges flashed in the firelight. "Do not fear. Dinobot will be joining you soon on the other side. Lord Megatron will see to it that you two are reunited. If it brings you any comfort in your last few moments of life, I promise you that I will see to it that your half-breed son joins you in the afterlife before too long. It would be cruel to leave him alive without either of his creators to care for him."

"Don't you dare touch my kid," Rattrap snarled.

"Unfortunately, you will not be here to stop me," Talon smirked. Dropping to one knee beside the spy, Talon pressed one finger blade to the side of Rattrap's throat. "Farewell, vermin. It was a displeasure knowing you."

Rattrap glared at her. "Not as much as knowin' you." Then, faster than Talon could react, he swung his blaster - which he'd somehow managed to keep a hold of through Talon's assault - up to the femme's face and squeezed the trigger. The raptor instinctively flinched backwards, but not fast enough to completely dodge a blast at such a close range. The plasma charge exploded in her face. Talon screeched in pain and reared backwards from Rattrap, clutching the left side of her face. Stumbling backwards several yards she stood hunched over in pain.

"You foul rodent," she hissed. Unfortunately, she couldn't supplement her curse with a glare. As she dropped her hands from her face Rattrap saw that he'd grazed the raptor's face with his blast, charring the entire left side of her face. Her optic was little more than a blackened mass of fried circuitry now. With her other optic being nothing more than a laser scope, she was basically blind in her robot form. "You foul, disgusting rodent!" she screeched. Spitting with rage the raptor began backing away towards the forest. "This changes nothing! Your doom is already sealed! Lord Megatron will have his victory and nothing you or Dinobot can do can stop him!" With a quick command Talon transformed back into her raptor form and darted away between two trees, disappearing back into the forest in retreat.

Rattrap didn't even try to rise from where he lay. The pain across his chest was paralyzing. He could barely find the strength to lift one hand to press against his wounds to staunch the flow of vital fluids spilling from his body. Mech-fluid seeped between his fingers and down the sides of his chest into the ground.

"Fraaaaaaaag," Rattrap groaned with a wince. "Dis wasn't how I was expectin' dis ta end…"

Drawing intakes was steadily becoming more difficult to do. Rattrap felt his spark sputter inside his chest like a candle flickering in the wind. Pain throbbed through his entire torso down to the tips of his fingers. Laying on his back staring up at the star-filled sky overhead, the spy sent a silent prayer out to lover.

_Go get 'em, Choppa'face. It's all up ta you now…_

Suddenly feeling as though he was being crushed under the weight of overwhelming tiredness, Rattrap let his optics dim and his cognitive functions drift offline. The burning pain in his chest seemed to melt away as the darkness rose up to meet him and pull him down into its inky black depths…

To Be Continued

Please, please, please review! I'm curious what people think I have planned next.


	23. Fortune's Fool

**Chapter Twenty-Three: Fortune's Fool**

Dinobot ran through the forest at breakneck speeds. She had to find Megatron, destroy the gold disks and return to Rattrap as fast as she could. Despite whatever he'd said, she didn't know if she should have trusted him when he'd said he'd deal with Talon. Her transmetal clone was extremely dangerous. No matter how good the rodent was with a gun and explosives, all those things were next to useless against Talon in close combat. Rattrap had not come online as an infantry model. She wasn't sure how long he'd last in a real fight against Talon.

_The rat is not without resources,_ Dinobot tried to tell herself. _He's survived worse situations than this. Primus only knows how difficult it was for me to corner him when I first joined Primal's crew._

But then why couldn't she shake this sinking feeling in the bottom of her fuel tank?

Unfortunately, there wasn't anything she could do for her lover until after she found Megatron and destroyed the disks. Megatron was the only remaining threat to the valley and all of history. If she could stop him then her mission would be successful.

Forcing herself to focus on the task at hand, Dinobot delved deeper into the burning jungle. Since removing Terrorsaur, Waspinator, Quickstrike and Inferno from battle, the fires were no longer spreading as fast as they had been. The screams of the proto-humans had petered out. Dinobot suspected it was because they'd begun to flee the valley. She could only hope that not too many of them had been killed to be able to change the course of history too drastically.

_No way to know until after this battle is over,_ she realized with a frown.

Weaving through the trees, Dinobot stretched out her senses for any signs of Megaton. She'd seen no trace of the elusive warlord since entering the fray. Was he unaware of her presence in the valley? Surely he would have come to engage her if he knew she was there. Megatron's wouldn't risk her interfering with his plans. It was impossible he hadn't figured out his men were slowly being picked off one by one by some subversive force.

A fusion blast exploding against the ground mere inches in front of Dinobot forced the warrioress to skid to an abrupt halt.

_Speak of the devil._

_S_he spun towards the source of the blast. Several yards away stood the Predacon leader, his hulking figure framed against a wall of towering orange hellfire. His optics screamed murder as he stared her down. A thin trail of smoke snaked up into the air from the end of his fusion cannon.

"I was wondering when you were finally going to slink out of your hole to face me," Dinobot snarled. She gripped her sword tight and sunk into a battle stance.

"You…" Megatron growled as if unable to think of anything else to say in the grips of such rage. "You despicable race-traitor! You've ruined my plans!" The tyrant's entire frame shook with the force of his anger. "The proto-humans have fled! My men are gone! Do you realize what you've done? We Predacons could have finally taken our rightful place on Cybertron! Without the humans the Decepticons would have won the Great War! I could have changed the course of history and saved our race millennia of disgrace and second-class citizenship. I could have liberated our race from under the heel of Maximal rule!"

"At the expense of countless innocent lives!" Dinobot spat. "The Decepticons had their chance. They were defeated by the Autobots in fair combat. And as consequence of the Decepticons' defeat, we Predacons were forced to suffer untold humiliation and shame. I know this all too well, Megatron. There was a time once long ago when I too would have done anything in my power to see our ancestors win the Great War. But not now. My time with the Maximals has opened my eyes. The Decepticons had their chance and they lost. As their descendants, we have to accept that. It is the price we must pay for our ancestors' hubris. The prosperity of one race cannot be substituted for the existence of another."

"Humans are nothing more than monkeys that have learned to walk upright!" Megatron roared. His voice shook the night air. "They are no better than animals! You would turn your back on your own race for a bunch of hairy apes? Have you no sense of honor? Of loyalty?"

Dinobot growled deep in the back of her throat. "I have more honor and loyalty than you will ever know. I am not turning my back on my race. I am fighting for the survival of it. My son is a Predacon. But he is also half Maximal. And there is no treasure or glory in this universe that could convince me to endanger his life. His existence is linked to the survival of these proto-humans, so I will fight for them and all future generations yet to come."

"You've become soft," Megatron said, sneering at his former lieutenant in disgust. "You were once one of the greatest warriors to ever live. Now you are no different from any of those peace-loving Maximals. Your time with them has corroded the Predacon you once were."

"And I thank Primus for that every single day of my function," Dinobot snarled back. "I understand many things I never could have grasped before when I still fought under the Predacon standard. As I said, my eyes have been opened."

"Then you truly are a race-traitor," Megatron sneered. "You've doomed our race to once again live out the shame of our ancestors' defeat and consign us to the dregs of Cybertronian society."

"So it was, so it shall be again," Dinobot solemnly replied.

Megatron's face contorted into a expression so wrathful Dinobot felt a cold shiver run down the length of her spinal column. "You will pay for this," he hissed through clenched dentals. "You will pay for your interference. I could have changed the entire course of history. But because of a sudden bout of conscience, you've destroyed _everything!_"

With a howl of unfocused rage, the warlord swung his fusion cannon up towards Dinobot and began firing wildly. The warrioress barely managed to dodge to the side before the place she'd been standing several nano-klicks before became a crater of vaporized ash. Megatron followed Dinobot's path as she darted behind several trees for cover. Bits of super-heated bark exploded into the air as Megatron's fusion blasts hit.

This would not do, Dinobot thought as she ducked aside just in time to avoid a particularly large blast. She actually felt her body lifted off the ground by the force. She had to end this. Spinning around too fast for Megatron to recalculate his aim, she rushed the warlord with a loud battle cry. Her sword flashed in the flickering light of distant fires. Megatron just barely managed to deflect Dinobot's sword with the side of his fusion cannon before it could decapitate him. Dinobot was not to be deterred and came at him again. Using her legs' natural hydraulic power, she sprung at Megatron, bounded against the side of a tree immediately behind him and leapt at his back. She left two long slash marks down the middle of Megatron's back with her raptor claws. Megatron roared in pain and lashed his arm around at her. Dinobot ducked below the flailing limb and buried the top of her pede into Megatron's unguarded side. The tyrant stumbled to one knee. Dinobot wrapped both hands around the grip of her sword and brought her fists down on the back of Megatron's neck, driving him to the ground. As the warlord collapsed under the warrioress's blow, two objects tumbled from the subspace compartments on Megatron's back. The raised gold hieroglyphs on their sides flashed in the firelight.

"The disks!" Dinobot cried.

"No!" Megatron roared.

Leaping over Megatron, Dinobot snatched them up from the ground. Before she could properly savor the weight of the alien disks in her hands, though, a powerful fusion blast exploded against her back. The warrioress was knocked forward by the blast, almost completely off her feet. Her back burned with the residual charge of the strike. The artificial raptor skin on her back crackled and split when she tried to move. She feared third degree burns. But she did not release her hold on the disks.

"Give those back!" Megatron bellowed as he struggled to his feet. He didn't seem able to completely straighten, though, and remained partially doubled over.

"Never!" Holding both disks overtop her head, the warrioress began to charge the laser cells in her optics.

"No!" Megatron howled.

Beams of green energy exploded from Dinobot's optics. The two disks shattered like a piece of glass dropped from the top of a five story building. Shards of gold seemed to hang in the air a moment of weightless eternity like handfuls of tossed confetti before falling to the ground in exaggerated slow motion.

Megatron gaped in horror. "_Nooooo!_ You treacherous femme! You've destroyed everything!" Consumed by rage, the tyrant hefted his cannon back up at Dinobot and fired. The blast struck Dinobot in her right side. She wasn't able to stop herself from crying out in pain as she was driven to the ground. Both her back and side burned as if someone had just poured hydrochloric acid over her superstructure.

Megatron stalked towards her until he stood directly over her. "I won't let you interfere with my plans anymore," he growled. "Your treacherous life ends tonight. No more will I have to endure your annoying sense of honor on the battlefield." The tip of Megatron's fusion cannon hummed as it powered up. It hovered mere inches from the warrioress's face.

Dinobot felt no fear as she stared up the barrel of the super heated weapon. She'd lived her entire life as a warrior. Death on the battlefield was expected, and for many strived for as the ultimate honor. Yet as she stared up at the instrument of her own destruction she didn't feel any sense of satisfaction. She was finally getting what she'd always fought for: an honorable death on the battlefield. But now that her end had finally come, she felt strangely empty. The moment felt slightly anticlimactic, as if there was something missing. She couldn't say what it was that made her feel like that, but she felt… unfulfilled.

Megatron's fusion cannon was charged to full power. "Farewell, my ex-lieutenant. I believe that this marks the end of our convoluted affair."

"No," Dinobot shook her head. "If there is a higher power we must answer to after we pass from this existence into the next, then I shall see you again. For I will be there to testify to the crimes you've committed in this life when you finally die, and do everything in my power to see that you earn a place in the deepest circle of the Pit."

"If there really is a place of eternal punishment, then you will be burning there with me. No matter how much you talk about honor you are not without sin yourself."

"Perhaps," Dinobot agreed, her expression defiant but calm. "But if that's so, then I will be sure to keep a spot warm for you beside me there."

The sound of Megatron's fusion cannon hummed louder. He pressed the end of his weapon to the side of Dinobot's head. The warrioress continued to stare up at him. She refused to look away. She wasn't going to give Megatron the satisfaction of thinking she feared what he was about to do. She did not fear the agony of the Pit. Whatever sins she'd committed in her lifetime, she felt she'd done everything she could to mitigate them. Even if she hadn't, she felt no shame. She would meet Primus with her head held high.

Just before Megatron could unleash the fury of his weapon on the downed warrioress, however, Dinobot heard in the distance the muffled sound of approaching jet engines.

Megatron also heard it and looked up at the narrow patch of sky overhead. Three dark figures appeared against the darker night sky. It took Dinobot a moment to identify the mysterious forms before finally recognizing Optimus, Silverbolt and Cheetor. Cradled in Silverbolt's arms was Blackarachnia, and awkwardly perched on the end of Optimus's jet board was Rhinox.

"Megatron! Step away from Dinobot!" Optimus yelled down to them. Before the Predacon warlord even had a chance to comply, Cheetor fired several warning shots, forcing Megatron back from the warrioress.

"This isn't over!" Megatron screamed. In a flurry of shifting limbs, he transformed to beast-mode and activated his jets. "I was so close! So _close_!" With one last roar of defeat, the tyrant shot up into the air and disappeared over the tree tops. None of the Maximals tried to follow him. Instead they dropped down through the trees towards Dinobot. The fliers quickly deposited their passengers on solid land and lighted on the ground themselves.

Dinobot was already pushing herself to her pedes when Optimus and the rest of her comrades hurried up to her.

"Dinobot, are you alright?" Optimus demanded, his voice thick with worry. He reached out and grabbed her by the arm to help steady her as she stood straight and began looking her up and down for injuries.

"I'm fine," the warrioress said, brusquely shaking Optimus's hand off her.

"You don't look fine," Rhinox interjected. "You look like you just went several rounds with a class A fighter in the middle of a blast furnace."

Dinobot sent the engineer a withering look out of the corner of her optic. She knew how bad she must look: haggard from hours of travel, battered from her fight with Megatron and covered head to foot with soot from the raging fires. "I received some minor injuries, but I'm still fully functional," she assured him with a growl.

"We all feared the worst," Silverbolt said. "We were afraid we wouldn't reach you in time before… well, before you were overtaken by the Predacons. When we saw Megatron standing over you we all thought maybe we were too late."

Dinobot neither affirmed nor denied how close Megatron had come to terminating her. She still wasn't sure whether to be thankful or annoyed at her comrades' unexpected arrival.

"What happened here?" Blackarachnia demanded. The smaller femme stared at Dinobot with a disgruntled look and stood with both pinchers propped on her hips. "We busted our tailpipes getting here only to find out you've taken care of everything yourself."

"We did see Rampage and scared him off with a few good plasma shots," Cheetor helpfully spoke up.

"Shut up, kitty," the black widow snarled.

Dinobot pointedly ignored the two. "The Vermin and I managed to deactivate most of Megatron's men before they could cause too much damage. Most of the valley's inhabitants have fled. I don't know how many were killed in the attack, but I think most survived. In my fight with Megatron both gold disks were destroyed. He won't be able to use them for anymore plans."

"Rattrap's here?" Optimus said.

Dinobot nodded. "Apparently he followed me from base. He caught up to me right after I reached the valley." That sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach came back even stronger than before. "We had to separate so I could go after Megatron. I left him to fight Talon by himself…"

Dawning horror appeared on all the other Maximals' faces. "Where did you last see him?" Optimus urgently demanded.

Dinobot glanced in the direction she'd come before being attacked by Megatron. The nagging unease that'd been following her ever since she'd left Rattrap became a sickening knot of dread in the pit of her fuel tank. "This way," she motioned, already starting back towards the forest. She didn't wait to see if the others followed her. She ran as fast as she could, her spark pounding against the inside of her chest cavity. In her audios she heard both Optimus and Rhinox begin frantically hailing Rattrap on all Maximal comm-link frequencies. Nothing but empty static answered them. The warrioress pushed herself faster. The pain of the burns across her back and side didn't even register in her processor. All she could think about was finding her missing lover.

_You had better not be dead, Rodent. You swore to me you wouldn't die at my clone's hands. I will never forgive you if you break this promise._

It felt like she'd been running forever before Dinobot finally saw a break in the trees ahead. Putting on an extra burst of speed, the raptor broke free of the forest into open space. She was only vaguely aware of the others crashing after her into the clearing. Beyond the vague recognition that her comrades had followed her, Dinobot was aware of nothing else except the motionless figure laying in a pool of mech-fluid on the other side of the clearing. She heard Cheetor gasp behind her.

"Vermin…" Dinobot didn't even feel her sword slip from her grasp before she was running to her lover's side and dropped down to her knees beside him. "Vermin!"

"Here, let me see him!" Rhinox cried, pushing his way to Rattrap's other side. Everyone else crowded around behind them.

The spy was covered in his own fluids. The ground beneath him was coated in a crusty layer of purple. As Rhinox lifted Rattrap's hand from overtop his chest to inspect the damage, Dinobot saw three perpendicular slash marks bisecting his chest underneath.

"Oh, Primus…" Rhinox breathed. His voice was numb with horror.

Optimus leaned closer over Dinobot's shoulder. "How bad is it?" The question was asked hesitantly, as if he already feared what Rhinox's answer would be.

At first Rhinox didn't answer except to solemnly shake his head. "Deep lacerations to his chest. No doubt Talon's work." The engineer trailed off into silence as if he couldn't immediately bring himself to say just how much damage his friend had sustained. "The electrical lines to his spark chamber have been severed."

"What does that mean?" Cheetor timidly asked from the back of the crowd of onlookers. "Can you fix him?"

Rhinox sorrowfully shook his head. "No. I don't have the proper equipment to do any kind of field repairs, and he's too badly damaged to make it back to a CR chamber in time. With his electrical lines cut, his spark won't be able to maintain a charge. It'll eventually sputter out and send Rattrap permanently offline."

"There must be _something_ we can do," Silverbolt desperately insisted.

Rhinox shook his head. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do. He'd need a massive source of energy to help regulate his spark-charge until we got him into a CR chamber. And there's nothing like that within a hundred miles of here."

"So I'm basically fragged," a weak voice said between Rhinox and Dinobot. The warrioress looked down to find her lover staring up at them, his optics barely functioning at half capacity.

"Don't try to move, Rattrap," Rhinox cautioned. His voice was suspiciously tight. "Just lie still and relax. You're going to be okay."

"Com'on, big green," Rattrap rasped. "Don't try ta sugar coat it… I heard everything ya just said…"

Rhinox didn't even try to look sheepish. The spark-deep sorrow in his optics was too painful to look at.

Rattrap's optics flickered as though he were having trouble focusing on their faces. "So der's nothin' ya can do fer me..?" Mech-fluid bubbled up along the edges of his chest wounds as he struggled to speak.

Rhinox's face twisted with quiet agony. "I'm so sorry…"

The spy weakly waved his friend's apology away. "'s okay… 's not yer fault… Should'a been more careful… Should'a known not ta mess around with a femme with eight inch knives fer fingers…"

The mild panic that'd been steadily building inside her since spotting her mutilated lover rushed to the back of Dinobot's throat. The feeling threatening to boil over her self-restraint and overwhelm her. It reminded her of when she'd thought Rattrap had been killed by a sneak attack from Quickstrike. Only this time the feeling was a thousand times worse because she could actually see her lover laying injured with her own optics.

This wasn't right, Dinobot numbly railed. This wasn't what was supposed to happen! If anyone was suppose to die that night it was suppose to have been her! Not the vermin. Rattrap wasn't a warrior. He was a survivor. He'd survived everything this war had thrown at him thus far. He was suppose to make it off this planet and see their son safely back to Cybertron. How could he die now? How could he leave her like this? How could he leave Switch? Their son needed his father more than he needed her. Of the two of them, he was the better creator. This wasn't right! This wasn't fair!

Unaware of her own actions, Dinobot reached out and pulled the spy's bloody form to her. She easily cradled his smaller body off the ground in her arms. He was completely limp in her grasp. Carefully, she settled him in her lap against her chest. His head lolled heavily against her shoulder. The shallow puff of his intakes whispered against her breastplate.

"…thought ya didn't like ta cuddle…" he murmured teasingly. His voice was even weaker than before. "Who'da thought it'd take me gettin' carved up like a turkey ta make ya actually do dis in front of other people…"

With her lover's body pressed so close to hers Dinobot could feel the weakening pulse of Rattrap's spark against her chest. She could feel him slowly fading away from her.

_No. This isn't right. This isn't how this was suppose to play out!_ Dinobot angrily railed. This couldn't happen! She couldn't let Death claim him. Not like this. Not now.

Without realizing she'd begun speaking, Dinobot shook Rattrap just hard enough to make him focus on her. "Bond with me," she blurted out. "I will support you until we get you back to base."

Rattrap stared at her. Despite his steadily worsening state she didn't miss the look of incredulous shock on his face as if he thought he'd misheard her. The clearing became unnervingly quiet. Everyone stared at her in stunned silence.

"Dinobot… do you know what you're saying?" Optimus said. "You're talking about a permanent sparkbond."

The warrioress nodded, refusing to look away from Rattrap. "I know what I'm saying and my offer still stands. I can save him if we bond." If Dinobot hadn't been so consumed with panic for her lover she might have been startled by the strength of her certainty about this. She felt no hesitation towards the idea of sparkbonding with Rattrap. Despite her deep-seated fear towards close relationships, she felt no qualms about it now. This felt right. This was what she knew she had to do. It was as if the threat of losing him had made her finally realize her true feelings for him. She couldn't bear the thought of losing Rattrap. She didn't want to walk away from this battle alive if it wasn't with Rattrap by her side. She suddenly knew with irrevocable certainty that if there really was such a thing as Fate, then her destiny was interwoven with the spy's own. She'd lost her freedom to recklessly throw her life away on the battlefield the moment she'd given her heart to this smart-tongued mech. At some point over the last year as they'd set aside more and more their differences and come together as lovers and creators, he'd become hers, and she his. If she was meant to bond with anyone, it was with this Maximal spy. She could not - would not! - accept anyone else as her sparkmate but him.

"No. I don't approve of this," Rhinox interjected. "You could kill yourself trying to bond with him. Even if he does manage to survive the initial power surge there's no guarantee your spark will be strong enough to support both you and him all the way back to base. His injuries could drain your own spark charge and send both of you offline. I do not want this battle to needlessly claim a second life!"

"This is none of your business!" Dinobot snapped. "This is between me and the vermin. If he agrees to this bond then we will do it!"

"Optimus, you can't let them do this," Rhinox pleaded. "The chances of this succeeding are slim. There's no medical basis that this will actually work. This is nothing more than a fool's hope."

"You said the rodent needs a powerful energy source to support his spark-charge until he reaches a CR chamber, correct?" Dinobot snarled. "A spark is basically nothing more than a concentrated ball of negatively charged energy. If we successfully forge a bond, why shouldn't my spark be enough to support him? After a bond our sparks will have the same frequency. He is smaller than me. With a direct spark-to-spark connection we can share my spark energy. I can keep him alive."

"This is madness," Rhinox said, still looking to Optimus for support. The other Maximals were a silent audience to the ongoing drama.

Optimus stared at Dinobot and Rattrap for a long moment of silence. His optics swam with indecision before a look of quiet understanding stole over him. He slowly turned back to Rhinox. "This is not a decision for anyone else but Dinobot and Rattrap. If Rattrap agrees, I will not stand in their way."

Rhinox angrily shook his head, his expression reminiscent of one who'd tried to save someone from the path of an oncoming truck and failed to pull them to safety in time.

Dinobot hurriedly looked back down at Rattrap. His spark pulse was getting weaker by the minute. They didn't have much more time. "Do you agree, vermin? Will you bond with me?"

Rattrap at first seemed too stunned to answer. Struggling to find his voice the spy rasped in a disturbingly weak voice, "I… I don't know. I don't want'chu ta feel like yer being forced inta dis just ta save me… I don't want'chu ta someday regret bondin' with me..."

"Fool," Dinobot hissed, her throat uncomfortably tight. "I've already bore you a sparkling and become immune to your stench. I allow you to share my berth with me every night. What more do I have to do to prove that I've chosen you as my mate?"

"But you'll be stuck with me forever… Forever's a long time…"

"I find the prospect of living the remaining years of my function alone more displeasing than with you by my side."

Dinobot was struck by the irony of her words. For years she'd read poetry about romance and fated lovers and scoffed at those stories as mere fantasy born from the imaginations of hopeless bleeding hearts. But now, kneeling there with her lover, the father of her son, slowly dying in her arms she wondered if maybe she couldn't partake in that fantasy a little bit herself. She'd come to care for the rodent more deeply than she ever had another bot before. Faced with the probability of his death she suddenly couldn't stand the thought of being parted from him. She had to save him. Even if it cost her her own life trying.

Rattrap gave a watery chuckle. "Heh. We're just like da people in those silly stories of yers… What'd dat one guy say 'bout 'em..? 'What fools these mortals be..?'"

Dinobot stared at Rattrap for a spark-pulse of incredulous silence. "You know Shakespeare?"

The spy weakly nodded. "Yea… I read some of his stories on yer data pads when ya were pregnant with Switch… Wanted ta know wha' my femme was readin'…"

"Idiot," the warrioress said with a wan grin. "Shakespeare also said that fortune favors fools. And what greater fools are there on this planet than us?" Staring into her lover's dim optics, Dinobot whispered her request one last time - hoping against hope that the spy would finally accept her plea. "Bond with me. Please. Let me save you. I do not want to have to raise our son without you by my side."

Rattrap hesitated only a moment longer before weakly nodding his head. "Alright… 's not like anyone else but a slag-spoutin' saurian would have me anyway… Yer da best I could'a ever asked fer…"

Urgency was suddenly Dinobot's main focus. Spinning around to her and Rattrap's group of onlookers, she speared them all with a poisonous glare. "Go away! This may not be the most ideal setting for a sparkbond, but that does not mean I have to suffer an audience for it!"

The shell-shocked Maximals all obediently began to back away towards the far edge of the clearing. Dinobot's tone had left no room for argument. Only Optimus dared linger behind a few seconds longer. "Good luck," he whispered. "May Primus watch over and protect you both. We will be praying for you."

Dinobot's only reply was a curt nod of acknowledgement. Optimus solemnly turned and followed the rest of his crew a few yards beyond the tree line to give the two lovers some semblance of privacy.

The warrioress turned her attention back to her dying lover. Rattrap was fading fast. She had to hurry. Moving as quickly as she could while still being careful of his wounds, she worked Rattrap's shredded chest plate loose and tossed it aside. The circuitry around his sparkchamber was a mess of severed wires and half-congealed vital fluids beneath. His spark weakly sputtered behind the plated glass front of his sparkchamber. Dinobot pried her own breastplate off. There was no eroticism in what she did as she began hooking her and the spy's internal cables to each other's sparkchambers. This was an emergency medical procedure meant to ensure her lover's survival. Intimacy would have to wait until later when Rattrap was no longer lingering on the threshold of Death's door. Assuming they both survived this, that was. The thrum of energy running between them was distracting, but it seemed to give Rattrap a small boost of strength for what little good it did him.

Rattrap could barely keep his optics focused on Dinobot's face anymore. He was so far gone by now that the warrioress had to do everything to prepare their bond herself, including gently teasing open the front of Rattrap's sparkchamber and bearing his life essence to the air. The spy gasped in pain and squirmed in Dinobot's arms. The severed ends of his electrical lines shorted and sent several small sprays of sparks arching out of his chest cavity. Dinobot's fingers slipped on the edges of her own sparkchamber as she hurried to open it; mech-fluid covered them in a slippery coat of blue. She sucked in a startled intake of air between her teeth as her spark came in contact with the cold night air. Trying to be as gentle as she could given her lover's injuries, she pulled Rattrap upright onto his knees to face her. She had to support all his weight in her arms. He somehow managed to raise one hand and grip the edge of her shoulder guard to help steady himself.

"Ya still sure 'bout dis..?" Rattrap's voice wafted to her audios as softly as a sigh. His optics flickered with impending unconsciousness. "I don't wanna die… but I won't hold it 'gainst ya if ya wanna back out… Last chance, Dino-breath…"

"Shut up, Vermin, and relax," Dinobot snapped. She carefully lined their chests up so that their sparks hovered right next to each other, barely inches apart. The edges of their spark-auras danced against each other, sending tendrils of static-like warmth into both of their cores. "Do not try to fight the energy exchange. Just let your spark attach to mine and use my energy as your own. Once we are bound, I will take care of you until we reach base."

"Sounds like ya've done dis before…" Rattrap mumbled against her neck. It was becoming increasingly difficult to understand him.

"Be grateful I am doing it this once." She pulled the spy closer to her. "Are you ready?"

Rattrap weakly nodded. "Yea… Go 'head an' do yer worst… " He somehow managed to lift his other arm and snake it around Dinobot's back to pull himself closer to her. His helm dropped to the dip between her neck and shoulder guard. "If something goes wrong…" he struggled to whisper, his voice barely even audible, "I just want'cha ta know… I would'a bonded with ya even if I wasn't dyin'… Yer da best thing ta ever happen ta me… Both you an' Switch… Guess wha' I'm tryin' ta say is dat I lov-"

"Shut up, Vermin," Dinobot harshly cut him off. Her voice cracked with barely controlled emotions. "What have I told you about saying sentimental slag like that? Do not say it. Not right now. You'll jinx us if you do. Just let me save you, and if you still feel it necessary to say what I already know you can tell me again later when we are back on the Axalon."

"…a'right…" Rattrap murmured. He was sagging heavier against her. He no longer had any strength to hold himself upright. Dinobot felt him weakly smile against the side of her throat with the last little bit of strength her had. "Just… as long… as ya know…"

Shuddering her optics, Dinobot nodded tightly in understanding. Wasting no more time, she pulled her lover across the last few inches still separating them and brought their sparks together in a miniature explosion of light. Time seemed to stop as Dinobot felt her spark collide and then slowly merge with her dying lover's. Energy like ungrounded lightning shot across the cables connecting them and exploded against the back of each of their sparkchambers. An aura of glowing white light rose up to encase them. There was no pain but Dinobot felt as if the very essence of her being was being torn apart and reconstructed inside her. Unconsciously, she gripped Rattrap closer, bringing their sparks even closer together. She could feel him. She could feel his spark pulsing in tandem with her own amidst the chaotic exchange of energy taking place between them. Like finding the other half of her whole she could suddenly feel Rattrap inside her body, mind and heart. Joined to the spy on such metaphysical levels, Dinobot now knew the full extent of her other half's injuries. She could feel the weakness steadily draining her lover of life. She could actually _feel _the chill of death on him through their bond as if the empty void that lay beyond was waiting a hairbreadth away for herself. Desperately, she reached out to him through the turbulent storm of energy running between them and completely opened her spark to him, willing him to take her energy and use it as his own.

_Accept me… Do not leave me… I do not want to be alone… Please do not leave me… After all we've been through, I cannot go on without you now…_

As though actually hearing her, Dinobot felt Rattrap's ghostly presence in the back of her mind throw down the last firewall of hesitation and join her in sudden, absolute oneness. There was no longer Dinobot or Rattrap, but rather a single being separated by two bodies. The feeling was almost frightening in its intensity. It was like having a nuclear bomb detonated in the center of her spark.

Slowly, the light encasing the two began to fade and Dinobot felt her essence separate from her lover and return to herself. In the wake of their bond the clearing seemed darker than before. Dinobot had to flicker her optics several times before they finally adjusted to the night. In her arms Rattrap was dead weight. His head hung limply over her elbow. At first glance one might have taken him for dead. But Dinobot knew better. Although he was unconscious, she could feel the weak but steady beat of his spark pulsing in tandem with her own through their invisible connection. Energy thrummed across the cable lines still connecting them, feeding Rattrap's dying spark her own spark-charge.

Gathering Rattrap's limp body up into her arms, Dinobot shakily stood. His helm and legs dangled over her elbows and swayed with her movements in the air. Dinobot was startled by how weak she felt, like all her strength was draining into the injured mech in her arms like water through a sieve. Although their sparkbond had been successful, Rattrap was still in grave danger. His spark was still seriously injured and in need of immediate repairs. If she didn't want to feel him slip away into the Matrix, she had to hurry. Not only for him, but for her own survival she had to get him to a CR chamber as fast as she could. Once sparkbound Cybertronians were irrevocably linked to each other on the deepest level possible for sentient beings to be. If one died the other was almost certain to follow the first into death, or live on in a miserable half-life existence until death mercifully released them from their pain.

"Hold on, vermin," she whispered as she struggled to find her feet. She felt so weak. The drain of Rattrap's spark on hers was more than she had been expecting. Somehow she managed to stagger across the clearing to where she'd seen Optimus and the others disappear into the forest. As she neared the tree line, the crunch of her feet against burnt ground must have been loud enough to alert others to her presence because the rest of the Maximals almost immediately appeared between the trees and stared at her with stunned looks. She didn't want to think about how she and Rattrap looked to them - both their chest plates missing and their sparkchambers still connected by plugs and wires.

Optimus moved towards her. "Dinobot-"

"Get us home," the warrioress begged, her knee joints shaking underneath her. A fuzzy ring of darkness had begun to form around the edges of her visual readout. She clutched Rattrap's fluid-covered body tighter. "We don't have much time…"

Optimus didn't need to be told twice. "Hold on," he said and transformed to jet mode.

With Rhinox's help the warrioress sat on the front of Optimus's jet board. Her grip on Rattrap didn't loosen.

"Stay with me, Dinobot," Optimus urgently coached. "You keep hold of Rattrap and I'll get you two back to base as fast as I can."

Dinobot couldn't find the strength to answer except to weakly nod.

Optimus revved his jet engines and lifted several inches off the ground. Gripping her unconscious lover close, the warrioress leaned back against Optimus' legs for support. Optimus rose higher in the air - taking care to compensate for his passengers' extra weight - and glanced over his shoulder back towards the others. "Silverbolt, Cheetor, I want you two to go and put out those fires Megatron started before they cause any more damage."

"We're on it, big bot," Cheetor nodded. Together the two fliers turned and shot up into the night sky towards the worst of the blaze.

"Rhinox, take the others and scout the valley. I want an estimate on how many proto-human Megatron's men killed before Dinobot and Rattrap stopped them. Afterwards, gather everyone together and head back to base. Primus seems to be smiling down on us tonight. If we're lucky he'll continue to and we'll all meet up there."

"You got it, Optimus," Rhinox nodded. The engineer stole a quick glance at Dinobot and the unconscious mech in her arms. His optics lingered on his best friend's fluid-covered form. He looked up to meet Dinobot's gaze. "Good luck," he whispered to her. "Keep him safe."

"We've come too far together for me to let the rodent slip away now…" Dinobot rasped. The effort of talking seemed to zap all her remaining strength. She unconsciously sagged heavier against Optimus's legs.

Optimus must have sensed the drain on her systems from having to support both her and Rattrap's spark-charge, and urgently rose higher into the air. "We have to go!" he called back to the others. "We'll meet you back at base!" And then they were speeding away through the air, skirting just above the tree tops like a giant metallic bird.

Dinobot no longer felt strong enough to support herself and leaned all the way back against Optimus. She struggled to regain control of her rapidly dimming senses as the wind whipped against her face. The fuzzy black ring around her visual readout darkened and began to spread. Her fingertips began to go numb as more and more energy was channeled out of her into Rattrap's dying spark. She refused to loosen her hold on him. If anything she clutched him tighter as the miles sped past several hundred feet below them.

The journey back to base was a complete blur to Dinobot. All she could focus on was the weight of her lover - no, her sparkmate! - in her arms. She counted the seconds between each of their synchronized spark pulses. She didn't know how long the flight back to base was, but by the time Dinobot finally spotted the Axalon's flood lights in the distance and felt Optimus begin to descend Rattrap's spark was once again beginning to sputter like a candle in the wind.

_No… Don't leave me… Stay with me,_ she desperately called to him across their sparkbond. _Do not give up on me now…_

Dinobot could no longer see properly. The world spun around her in a confusing kaleidoscope of moving shadows and deeper darkness. She felt like she was drunk she was so woozy from energy loss. She could barely even get her feet under her when Optimus landed, transformed, and took her by the arm to half-carry, half-drag her inside. Her hold on Rattrap was the only thing that remained strong. It was like her arms had locked around him to keep him in place near her spark.

"Hold on, we're almost there," a voice chanted somewhere near her audio. "Just a little farther. We're almost there." It took the warrioress a moment to realize the voice belonged to Optimus.

Dinobot blindly stumbled alongside the larger Maximal as he steered her and her precious burden towards the lifts. Optimus was supporting the majority of their weight by the time they rattled to a stop at the top.

"Primus!" a voice rang out as the lift doors opened onto the Axalon's bridge. "Is that Dinobot and Rattrap? What happened?"

"Airazor, come give me a hand," the gorilla called as he hurriedly dragged the newly bonded sparkmates towards the nearest CR chamber. A new set of hands gripped Dinobot's other arm and helped support her faltering steps. A plaintive chirp sounded from the other side of the bridge. It took Dinobot's energy-starved processor a few klicks to recognize her own son's call.

"S..witch…?" she mumbled.

"Don't worry, Airazor's taking care of him," Optimus assured her. Together he and Airazor guided the warrioress and her sparkmate into the CR chamber and helped her slide down against the wall to the floor. She slumped against the chamber's back wall. Rattrap lay limp across her lap, his helm lolled against the hollow of her shoulder. "Just worry about you and Rattrap recovering."

Dinobot couldn't even lift her head off her chest enough to look at them or even grunt in response.

Optimus and Airazor quickly backed out of the CR chamber. The doors swung shut around Dinobot and Rattrap, sealing them in darkness. The warrioress heard a low hum reverberate through the chamber before she felt a gentle electrical pulse course through her body. Her tiredness was suddenly overwhelming. She was already fading towards unconsciousness when the machine's regenerative systems kicked on. She suddenly felt like she was falling backwards into a bottomless pit of nothingness. Darkness rose to claim her. Just before she slipped completely offline, the last thing she was aware of was the reassuring pulse of Rattrap's spark beating in tandem with her own.

And then, there was nothing…

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	24. Missives from the Sky

Last chapter of "Fortune Favors Fools." Warning: it's a long one.

**Chapter Twenty-Four: Missives from the Sky**

Consciousness returned to Dinobot gradually. She felt like a diver drifting back to the surface after a long submersion. Her neural circuits felt like they were filled with congealed tar. The first thing to break through the foggy haze of sleep still clogging her processor was the feeling that she'd been offline for an extremely long time. All her joints were stiff and her tension cables ached. She onlined her optics, but nothing but a wall of blackness met her. As the veil of sleep dissipated from her senses the warrioress realized she was sitting on the floor, slumped against the wall. She tried to move but was stopped by a heavy weight draped across her legs. It was then Dinobot remembered everything that had happened and where she was:

Her suicidal plan to attack the Darksyde and retrieve the golden disks from Megatron. Forcing Tarantulas to take her to the valley. Rattrap meeting her in the valley. Leaving him to fight Talon alone. Facing Megatron in battle. Destroying the gold disks. Finding Rattrap injured in the clearing. Being told he wouldn't survive. Offering to bond with him to save his life. Rattrap agreeing. A brilliant flash of light. Feeling Rattrap like a second presence in the back of her mind. Optimus airlifting both of them to base in a frantic race against time. Being dragged to the CR chamber. And then… The rest was a blur.

Dinobot's arms tightened around the limp figure in her lap and pulled him closer, relishing the warmth of his superstructure against hers. Rattrap's intakes puffed against her breastplate, slow and deep. In the darkness of the CR chamber Dinobot's optics gave off a faint red glow which illuminated the outline of Rattrap's face. The spy was offline. Across the wires still connecting their sparkchambers Dinobot could feel the strong and steady beat of his spark pulsing in tandem with her own. She no longer felt a drain of energy on her spark nor any weakness on Rattrap's side of their bond. The CR chamber had successfully healed her sparkmate's wounds.

_Sparkmate… _Dinobot mulled in silent awe. _The vermin is my bonded mate. After all these years searching for an honorable death on the battlefield, I ended up bonding with the mech who was once the bane of my existence. Who would have ever thought this was what would someday become of me? What strange roads Fate has led me down…_

And those roads had been very strange indeed. She and Rattrap had once been mortal enemies. Yet after almost two years of bickering and meaningless squabbles, they'd finally set aside their differences to come together first as tentative comrades in arms, then friends, then lovers, creators and finally bonded sparkmates. Although they'd forged their bond in a less than an ideal situation, Dinobot felt no regret for what she'd done. Now that she was able to feel the touch of the spy's presence in the back of her mind, she couldn't imagine _not_ having him so intimately connected with her. Staring at the sleeping mech in her arms, the warrioress felt her affection for him swell. The vermin was _hers_ - no one else's! He was her sparkmate, and she suddenly knew with irrevocable certainty she would eviscerate anyone who tried to take him from her. In some ways it was still difficult for her to truly believe they were a bonded pair. She'd spent so long fighting to prove her independence that to suddenly have another attached so completely mind, body and heart to her for the rest of her natural existence was a little frightening. The gentle thrum of Rattrap's spark pulsing reassuringly alongside her own, however, helped dispel the worst of her lingering uncertainty.

"What fools these mortals be indeed," she whispered into the darkness, and shifted Rattrap into a more comfortable position in her lap. The faintest hint of a contented smile tugged at her lips.

"Ya got dat right," a voice answered her. "Only a fool would willingly bond with a slag-spoutin' saurian an' not wonder if he's gone completely insane." The second presence in the back of the Dinobot's mind flared stronger and filled her with the sensation of contented warmth.

Dinobot glanced down at mech cradled against her chest to find Rattrap looking up at her with a playful grin. His optics glowed a soft red in the darkness.

"Vermin…" the warrioress whispered. She couldn't hide the flash of relief that coursed through her at Rattrap finally being awake. "How do you feel?"

"A lot better," Rattrap smiled. Snuggling closer to her, he leaned his head against her shoulder. "Nothin' hurts anymore. Ya got me back just like ya said ya would."

"Of course I did," the warrioress snorted. "Did you really think I would bond with you only to let you slip away into the Matrix? Have you so little faith in me?"

Rattrap chuckled, leaning even closer to her. "Naw. I never doubted 'chu fer a second." Growing more serious, the spy lifted his head off Dinobot's shoulder to better meet her gaze. For several moments of meaningful silence, he stared deep into her optics. "Ya saved me… We're sparkmates now."

"Do you regret it?" Dinobot asked, searching Rattrap's face for any signs of remorse.

"Ya stupid lizard…" he affectionately sighed. With one hand he reached up, curled his hand around the back of her helm and pulled her head down closer to him. "I might be a dirty rat, but I wouldn't sparkbond with someone just ta save my own skin. I meant wha' I said before 'bout bondin' with ya even if I wasn't dyin'. I've kinda thought of you as my femme ever since I got'chu pregnant. I've kinda been hopin' fer somethin' ta happen ta convince ya ta take wha' we got ta-gether to da next level. I just wasn't necessarily expectin' an actual sparkbond, or havin' ta almost die ta do it. But I don't regret it…" Smirking mischievously, he snaked his other arm around Dinobot's side and ran his palm down the length of her spinal column to her lower plates. "This scaly aft officially belongs ta me now."

Despite herself, Dinobot returned Rattrap's playful smirk with one of her own. "Then that means your scrawny hide belongs to _me_ now as well."

"I can live with dat," Rattrap grinned.

Through their bond, Dinobot felt a surge of ghostly feelings that weren't her own tickle the edge of her awareness. She could suddenly _feel_ Rattrap's memories in the back of her own mind. Unbidden, she felt the loneliness of a young orphaned mech who yearned to know the warmth of a family for himself - his single desperate but unspoken desire to find someone to call his own; and finally understood Rattrap's habitual need for physical touch to reassure himself he wasn't alone. She felt his budding affection for her as the waters of a tentative relationship were tested, and then a swell of unfettered love as he held their newsparked son in his arms for the very first time. She simultaneously felt his sense of completion as the family he'd always yearned for was formed and his unbridled fear of it being snatched away from him. She felt his fear and desperation as he'd chased after her to the valley, and later the trusting eagerness with which he gave himself to her as they came together as bonded sparkmates. But the strongest emotion she felt across their bond was the one Rattrap felt right this very moment: absolute contentment. All these emotions and more Dinobot felt as if they were her very own - like all of her sparkmate's feelings had been downloaded into her in one massive data pack of information.

As though consumed with the same sudden fiery need, the two simultaneously leaned towards each other across the tiny gap still separating them and smashed their mouths together in a passionate kiss. Dinobot clutched the spy close. With no chest plates to hinder their closeness, their sparkchambers ground against each other. The warrioress could feel the beat of her lover's spark pulsing against the other side of his sparkchamber's glass front as though it were struggling to break free and join hers. Her spark hungrily yearned for the feel of his spark next to hers as well.

With great reluctance, Dinobot broke their kiss and pushed Rattrap just far enough away from her to properly look him in the face. "You just survived a near fatal injury to your sparkchamber," she panted. "Do you feel well enough to do this? We can properly consummate our sparkbond later after you've had more time to recover."

"No, I'm fine," Rattrap ground out. "CR chamber fixed me all up." His fingers toyed with the hinges of Dinobot's sparkchamber. "Why waste a perfect setting like dis? We're alone, it's dark, we're already plugged inta each other… Wha' other excuse do we need?" As though to give her a better incentive, Rattrap sent a strong electrical pulse across his plug line into Dinobot's port.

The warrioress bit back a wanton groan of pleasure. "The others are more than likely waiting for us to emerge from the CR chamber," she somehow sluiced enough neural circuits together to protest. "They might hear us."

Rattrap had begun gently nibbling on the side of her neck with his front teeth. "We'll be quiet," he promised between nips. His fingers played with the clasps of Dinobot's sparkchamber, urging her to open and bear her spark to him.

"You're incorrigible," the warrioress spat.

She felt Rattrap grin against the side of her throat. "But dat's why ya love me, isn't it?"

Dinobot couldn't find the willpower to resist her sparkmate's persuasive touches anymore and let the glass plating of her sparkchamber swing open, filling the inside of the CR chamber with shimmering blue light. The spy quickly followed suit and bared his own spark to the air.

Just before Rattrap's lips found their way to hers for another passionate kiss, the warrioress mumbled her answer too quietly for one to actually hear, but what was felt all the same by her sparkmate through their bond: "Yes."

* * *

Optimus glanced at the CR chamber on the far side of the bridge for possibly the tenth time in the last hour. The red light above the doors that showed if it was occupied or in the midst of a regenerative cycle had blinked off almost an hour ago, but Dinobot and Rattrap still hadn't emerged yet. Optimus was becoming worried. They'd been inside the CR chamber for the last two days. Had something happened? Rattrap had been severely damaged. They'd barely gotten him back to base in time. Had the repairs not been enough to save him? Had he slipped offline and taken Dinobot with him? Optimus was seriously beginning to consider opening the chamber to see if the two were alright.

It was midday and the rest of the crew were all gathered on the bridge doing miscellaneous tasks. Although no one had explicitly offered to do so, there was an unspoken, shared feeling amongst the crew that they should wait for their injured comrades to emerge. Rattrap and Dinobot had risked their lives to stop Megatron from destroying the valley and its inhabitants; thus preserving history and saving the Maximal race. To wait for them to be repaired seemed like such a small thing to do in comparison to the sacrifice the two of them had almost made.

At one of the computer stations, Airazor watched security feeds with Switchblade propped in her lap. The sparkling listlessly toyed with the feathers on her arms. Since his parents were dragged into the CR chamber he'd become unnaturally quiet and withdrawn. Airazor, and even Cheetor, had tried to engage him several times in play but each time Switch had quickly become bored and indifferent to their attempts. Optimus's spark went out to the tiny sparkling. To be orphaned at such an early age was a fate he wouldn't wish on anyone. Yes, Switch would be taken care of should the worst happen to Dinobot and Rattrap, but the affection of an adopted caretaker could never truly replace the love of a creator.

That thought was enough to inspire Optimus to act. "It's been too long. I'm opening the CR chamber to check on them," he announced to no one in particular. "They should have come out by now."

"Optimus, you have to give them time," Rhinox said from the computer station next to his. "The chamber probably used a large dose of sedatives on them before starting repairs. You have to give it time for the anesthetic to wear off."

Optimus shook his head. "It should have worn off by now." He began to rise out of his chair.

Rhinox cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Optimus, Dinobot and Rattrap just sparkbonded under less than typical circumstances. Usually the couple would spend hours together before a sparkbond's actually forged. Their bond was hurried. They've had no chance to properly merge or get used to their connection." The engineer gave him a pointed look. "Let them have some time to themselves."

"Oh," Optimus muttered. Dawning realization lit his facial plates. "_Oh_…"

Rhinox nodded.

"I see your point," Optimus murmured. He glanced at the CR chamber as though suddenly reluctant to go near it.

"I still can't believe Dinobot actually bonded with Rattrap to save him," Airazor said from the other side of the bridge. "That's so romantic." In her lap, Switchblade continued to swat and ruffle the feathers on her arms, and release a muffled sneeze every so often when they irritated the inside of his nasal openings.

"I agree," Silverbolt said. No one failed to miss the love-sick look he cast Blackarachnia out the corner of his optic. "To risk one's life for his or her chosen mate is the ultimate sign of devotion. If my dark love was so grievously injured in battle, I would have done the exact same thing Dinobot did without a moment's hesitation."

"Oh please," Blackarachnia snorted. She pointedly ignored the second half of the fuzor's declaration. Tossing the strips of wire she'd been helping Silverbolt sort for the last hour and a half back down onto the table, she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "Now if one of them gets shot in battle we have to worry about the other offlining from heartbreak. I don't know what you Maximals find so romantic about that. Them sparkbonding's just made them a liability on the battlefield."

Optimus leaned back in his seat. "I agree that Dinobot and Rattrap being bonded is going to restrict them in some ways in battle, but I would rather have them bonded and alive than unbonded and Rattrap dead." He glanced at the CR chamber with a thoughtful look in his optics. "They've come a long way from when they first met. After seeing them that night in the valley I know they'll do well together."

"Yeah, but this is _Rattrap_ and _Dinobot_ we're talking about," Cheetor protested. "I mean I know they get along now, and they like each other enough to have had Switch. But a _sparkbond?_ That's serious. Even _I_ know that's a major show of commitment. Usually it's only couples who've been together for half a dozen decades or so who are the ones who even begin to _think_ about sparkbonding."

Optimus chuckled under his breath. "Love makes people do strange things. Despite all their differences, those two belong together. Rattrap almost dying might have been just the thing they needed to push them that last little bit towards each other." With a wry grin, Optimus glanced at Rhinox. "At least you don't have to worry about Dinobot deactivating Rattrap anymore whenever he annoys her."

"I'm still not ready to completely discredit the possibility yet," Rhinox muttered. "If she still hasn't killed him after a century or two, I may begin to believe it…"

Any more opinions on the subject, unfortunately, were cut off by the sudden hiss of the CR chamber's door swinging open. The inside of the chamber was bathed in thick shadows. Only the faintest outline of two figures standing near the back of the chamber were visible.

"Hey!" Rattrap's voice called out from the darkness. "Any chance someone out der happened ta bring my an' Dino-breath's chestplates back with 'em? I don't care wha' anybody might'a seen after I clocked out, but I ain't coming out with all my circuits hangin' out fer da world ta see."

"Looks like Rattrap's doing better," Cheetor noted with a relieved smirk.

"As if you have anything they'd even be able to see from a distance," a second voice snarled inside the chamber.

"As well as Dinobot," Silverbolt smirked.

"Hey, yer bonded ta me now, so wha's dat say 'bout yer taste in mechs?"

"That I must be suffering from a serious mental glitch and should have my processor defragged and rebooted," the warrioress deadpanned in reply.

In Airazor's lap, Switchblade perked at the sound of his parents' voices and gave a questioning chirrup.

With an annoyed sigh, Rhinox went to the CR chamber, picked up the two chestplates he'd leaned against the side of it the night he'd returned from the valley, and passed them inside the chamber; all the while making a show of keeping his eyes carefully averted. Several seconds later, the two newly bonded sparkmates emerged into the light with both their chestplates properly snapped into place. Optimus smiled at the sight of them. Rattrap stood close beside Dinobot - his hip gently pressing into her thigh he stood so close - with one arm wrapped around the warrioress's back and his hand resting on her other hip. Dinobot made no obvious attempt to escape his hold, and if Optimus wasn't mistaken, was actually leaning towards him ever so subtlety herself.

"Congratulations," he called to the couple with a relieved smile. "You had us all very worried there for awhile."

Rattrap replied with a beaming grin. "Always knew Lizard Lips couldn't live without me. Now she gets ta be stuck with me forever."

"Oh joy and rapture," Dinobot muttered. Her dark tone was noticeably forced, however. Optimus easily saw through her disgruntled rote down to the quiet contentment simmering underneath. As if sensing his sparkmate's true emotions - which Optimus realized with a small jolt he probably was - Rattrap smiled contently and rubbed a series of slow, heavy circles into the side of Dinobot's hip with his thumb.

A sharp chirp sounded from the other side of the bridge, making both Dinobot and Rattrap glance in the same direction. The motion was perfectly synchronized.

"Switchblade," Dinobot murmured. Both her and Rattrap's expressions softened at the sight of their son. Again, in perfect unison, the two stepped off the same foot and side-by-side moved towards him. The sparkling released an audio-piercing squeal of delight as both his creator came closer.

Optimus blinked, wondering if his optics were somehow playing a trick on him. He wasn't the only one to notice either, because half of the rest of the crew stared at the two sparkmates with furrowed optic ridges.

Coming up to Airazor, Dinobot reached down and lifted Switchblade up into her arms against her breastplate. The sparkling chirped wildly, nuzzling his head against Dinobot's throat as though desperate for the reassurance of his mother's presence. Rattrap and Dinobot both leaned down over him in mirror images of each other.

"Hey, bud," Rattrap smiled, rubbing his hand up and down the sparkling's back. "Miss us?" Switch burbled happily in response, his tiny protoform curled against Dinobot's breastplate. Rattrap glanced at Airazor. "Thanks fer watchin' him fer us. Sorry fer dumpin' him on ya like dat."

"It was no problem," Airazor assured him. "He was darling. Anytime you need someone to watch him just let me know."

Dinobot and Rattrap both nodded gratefully to her, again in perfect synchronism. By now the entire crew had noticed something strange going on. More than a few unnerved glances were exchanged.

Optimus stared in fascination. If Dinobot and Rattrap didn't perform the same movement in what appeared to be choreographed unison, they perfectly mirrored each other's motions. But what was the most fascinating of all was that neither seemed to notice anything amiss themselves.

"Rhinox, _what_ is going on with them?" he hissed under his breath as the engineer came back over to that side of the bridge and retook his seat beside him.

Rhinox glanced at Dinobot and Rattrap. "They're synched," he replied almost as if this strange event didn't surprise him. "Both their sparks had to reset their frequencies to accommodate each other's spark signal, so right now they're perfectly tuned into each other. It's not an uncommon side effect of a fresh sparkbond."

"Will it last long?" Optimus asked. He didn't know if he'd be able to stand this odd display for an extended period of time. Seeing the two most antagonistic, polarized opposites of his crew walking, talking and moving around in synchronized harmony was unnerving to say the least.

"It should wear off in a day or two," Rhinox said.

Optimus nodded numbly. Well, this was going to be an interesting two days…

"How long were we in the CR chamber?" Dinobot asked as she shifted Switchblade to the crook of her other arm. The sparkling clung to her, his head tightly nestled under her chin. He warbled with contentment as Dinobot began to possessively stroke his back.

"About two days," Cheetor replied.

"Seriously?" Rattrap said, his expression startled. "Dat long?"

Rhinox leveled a serious look on his friend. "You were severely injured. I was actually expecting you to be in there for at least another day."

"Well, dat explains why I feel so stiff den…" the spy murmured and stretched his arms up over his head until his spinal column gave a muffled pop.

"What about Megatron and the valley?" Dinobot demanded. "What happened with them?"

"Cheetor and Silverbolt put out the worst of the fires before it could spread any farther through the valley," Optimus replied. "The bodies of about two dozen proto-humans were found. All of them had laser wounds or were burnt by the fires. All the remaining proto-humans have fled. From what we could tell they've splintered into several large tribes and scattered in different directions."

Dinobot's facial plates tightened in thought. "Then the chances of Megatron being able to launch a second attack on the proto-humans are slim."

"That would be my assessment too," Optimus nodded. "And without the gold disks, Megatron's chances of discovering another way to drastically change the outcome of the Great War are next to none. Especially when so many of his men are no doubt recovering from the battle in a CR tank. The valley and the human race as a whole are safe. My deepest thanks are to both you and Rattrap for fighting such a hard battle and risking both your lives for the preservation of so many future generations."

"Eh, I hadta do it, or Choppa'face would've gone an' let herself get killed," Rattrap shrugged.

Optimus sighed fondly at the spy's refusal to accept praise. "Nonetheless, I thank you for what you both did for the human race and for all of us as well. We owe you."

The two sparkmates both humbly dipped their heads to him in recognition of his thanks.

"If there is nothing that requires our presence here on bridge, we would like to retire our quarters," Dinobot said with a longing glance towards the door. "The vermin and I need to see to our son and have some time to adjust to the different aspects of our bond."

Optimus nodded. "That's fine. Take as much time as you need."

Dinobot and Rattrap nodded again, and in perfect unison turned towards the door.

"See ya tomorrow!" Rattrap called over his shoulder before he, Dinobot and Switch disappeared out of sight down the hallway.

"Well, that was weird…" Cheetor mumbled in the wake of their departure.

"You can say that again," Blackarachnia seconded.

One by one, the Maximals all turned back to the tasks they'd been occupying themselves with before Dinobot and Rattrap's appearance.

Optimus smiled to himself as he turned back to his computer. _Those two really were meant for each other. Maybe Primus has a plan for all of us after all…_

_

* * *

_

_Five Months Later_

"I've recalibrated the CR chamber's settings to accommodate Switch's smaller size and weight," Rhinox explained as he made some last minute adjustments to the machine. "Reformatting should only take a few minutes." He turned back to Dinobot and Rattrap. In the warrioress's arms she held their son perched in the crook of one arm against her chest. "You two still sure you want to do this? I don't foresee any problems, but Switch is still very young. We can easily postpone this a few months until he's a full solar cycle old. His motor skills still haven't fully developed in this form, so there's no chance of him wandering off ship by himself. He'll be protected from any energon surges as long as he stays onboard."

Dinobot shook her head. "No. Switchblade needs a set of armor integrated onto his protoform. He might be safe onboard the Axalon, but beyond these walls the world is a very dangerous place. Megatron has been quite these last few months, but how long will it be until he decides to attack our base again, and this time with even more firepower? No, I will not let my son go on unprotected anymore. He needs armor and a beast-mode in case he is forced to flee the ship and stay outside for longer than his protoform is able to withstand the energon surges. We are in the middle of the war. I will not allow my son to become a casualty of it because I did not see to it that he was properly equipped with something as basic as armored plating."

"Yea, I gotta agree with Choppa'face on dis one," Rattrap seconded. "After Talon got onboard dat one time an' kidnapped Switch I don't think we should put dis off any longer in case somethin' like dat happens again."

"Alright," Rhinox surrendered. "It's your right as creators to decide. Just give me a few more minutes to finish the last of the warm-up sequences and we'll begin."

As the engineer turned back to the controls Dinobot glanced down at the squirming sparkling in her arms. Over the last few months Switchblade had grown bigger. He still remained uncommonly small for a sparkling his age however. Dinobot had reconciled herself to the fact that her son was probably only going to grow a few inches taller than his sire. Besides developing more refined motor skills which allowed the rambunctious sparkling to stand and toddle around on his own if supported by something, Switch's protoform had also darkened to a deep shade of royal blue. Silver undertones gave his chest and back a shimmering color quality while the raptor stripes on his arms and legs had darkened to a blue so deep they appeared almost black.

Dinobot readjusted the helm that'd been fitted down over her son's head so that it wasn't slipping down over his optics. The metal was an unadorned ugly gray. It was a little bulky for Switchblade's small frame, as were the miniature greaves, forearm guards and chestplate Rhinox had constructed for him, but that had been done purposely. They'd wanted to leave enough room for Switchblade to be able to grow into them a little before a new set had to be made. It was a little disconcerting to see such a young sparkling (even one of Predacon descent) outfitted in such heavy plating like this, but it was necessary. As she'd reminded Rhinox, they were at war and her son had almost come to ruin once because he hadn't been properly protected from their enemies. Dinobot wasn't going to let that happen again. Even if that meant having to reformat her son's protoform with armor and activating his latent genetic coding for a beast-mode at such an early age. The warrioress might have given up her search for death on the battlefield since bonding with Rattrap, but that didn't mean she wasn't prepared to lay down her life for the protection of her progeny. The preservation of her family was now her most sacred duty. Since death was no longer an option, her honor now rested in overseeing the safety of her sparkmate and son.

"Ya ready ta get upgraded, Switch?" Rattrap said and rubbed his knuckles against the side of Switchblade's new helm in a playful noogie.

The sparkling ducked his head and buried his face into the side of Dinobot's neck. "No," he chirped with a defiant warble.

Over the last few months, one of Switch's other new skills was the ability to pronounce simple words. 'No' was only one of three he'd mastered thus far, but by far his favorite even when the conversation didn't necessarily call for a positive or negative response.

Rattrap grinned at the sparkling's feistiness and delivered another merciless noogie to their son's helm. The sparkling chirruped at their new game and tucked his head under Dinobot's chin, certain his mother would offer him safe haven from his father's playful torment.

Across their bond, Dinobot felt a surge of possessive love crash against the back of her spark from Rattrap. Since sparkbonding, the spy was a constant presence in the back of her mind. Even when he was not physically nearby she could still feel the reassuring caress of his life essence reaching like a ghostly whisper out to her across their bond. When they were near each other like right now she could actually feel his emotions inside her as if they were emanating from her very own core. At one time, Dinobot might have found this frightening and disagreeable in the worst sort of way. But now, she found nothing but contentment in the sensation of her chosen mate's spark so intimately connected with her own. That wasn't to say that she and Rattrap didn't still frequently fight and bicker - far from it! No sparkbond could change such a integral part of their relationship. But their bond had helped them come to understand more about each other and about where they had come from, and give the warrioress a sense of peace and fulfillment she'd never felt before in all her long years of warrior training and fighting.

"Alright. Everything's ready," Rhinox announced and turned back towards the small family. With a push of a button, he opened the doors to the CR chamber.

Dinobot carried her son towards it. The sparkling gave an uncertain chirp and glanced at his mother as though for an explanation. "Do not be afraid," she instructed, and gently pried him away from her chest to set him on the floor in the middle of the chamber. "Your sire and I will be immediately on the other side of these doors. It will not hurt nor cause you any sort of discomfort. It will all be over within a few minutes."

Whether the sparkling actually understood his mother's words of encouragement or not, Switchblade warbled uncertainly and lifted his arms up in the air. His dark red optics pleaded her to pick him back up.

The battle-toughened warrioress's spark constricted with guilt. "No, Switch," she said and began backing back out of the chamber. "It will be over in a minute." The sparkling chirruped plaintively. Steeling her resolve, Dinobot forced herself to turn away from his pleading optics and walk back towards her sparkmate's side. "Start the sequence," she ordered Rhinox.

The engineer complied and pressed the button to seal the doors around the still chirping sparkling. Within seconds, Switch was lost from view behind the CR chamber's heavy steel doors. Rattrap must have sensed the storm of emotions roiling inside his sparkmate because he reached out and pressed his palm to the small of her back in reassurance. Dinobot unconsciously leaned back into his offered comfort. Although she was sure it wasn't actually possible, she imagined she could still hear her son's plaintive chirps coming from inside. The machine began to hum.

"Armor-protoform integration, complete," Rhinox called from the control console. "Genetic reformatting begun."

The warrioress anxiously shifted her weight from pede to pede. She crossed her arms and tried to school her facial plates into a stoic expression despite the churning knot in the bottom of her fuel tank. Rattrap seemed to share her anxiousness and massaged his thumb in tight little circles against her spinal column.

Several more moments passed.

"Genetic reformatting complete," Rhinox announced and pressed the release button. The doors hissed open. Dinobot was already moving towards the chamber before the doors even had a chance to fully open. Switchblade was sitting exactly where she'd left him. At the sight of her, he lifted his arms and gave a plaintive chirp. The warrioress immediately acquiesced.

"How's he look?" Rhinox asked as she emerged with Switch a moment later. All three of them inspected the sparkling.

Switchblade's plain gray helm along with the rest of his unfashioned armored plating had changed. Now fully integrated into his protoform, the metal had taken on his genetic traits. His helm was now more streamlined and wrapped around the sides of his face in a design reminiscent of his father's. It, along with the rest of his new plating, had changed to a bright silver which complemented the patches of dark blue protomatter still visible between his armored plating. The most interesting new feature, however, was a line of downy blue-gray feathers running down the top of his helm.

"Wonder wha' his beast-mode looks like," Rattrap murmured. He glanced at Rhinox. "Think he's old enough ta try transformin'?"

"Only one way to find out," the engineer shrugged and glanced at Dinobot. "He's too young yet for voice commands, but since we already know his beast-mode's going to be raptor, his best bet would be to watch you do it. If you show him, he might be able to figure out the transformation sequence by himself."

Dinobot nodded and passed the sparkling over into his father's arms. Rattrap stepped back and stooped so that Switchblade could stand between his legs. "Just watch yer mom an' do wha' she does."

"Beast-mode!" Dinobot called. In a forcibly slowed down transformation, the warrioress folded down against herself and reformed into a brown and tan velociraptor.

"Now you," she said.

"Go 'head," Rattrap urged. He stepped backwards half a step to give the sparkling room. "Do wha'cher mom just did."

Switchblade glanced between his parent with a blank expression. For several moments, he did nothing but stare. Dinobot was just about to transform again to show her son what they wanted him to try and do, but before she could even convert back to robot-mode, Switchblade's facial plates scrunched together in a focused expression and his body and limbs began to separate into several different sections. His chest plate swung downwards while both his arms curled and folded down underneath the raised plates on his sides. The plating along his back broke apart and began to reform as a tail. Switchblade's transformation was slow and awkward, but Dinobot could see her own tenaciously stubbornness shining through in her son's attempt. Just as Switchblade's head began to tip forward to fold up underneath his chest plate, however, the sparkling's gears sudden ground tight and froze him mid-transformation. Trapped in such an awkward position, he squealed in panic. Dinobot was instantly beside him, nudging different plates and limbs into their proper places with her nose.

Finally, the last piece snapped into place and Switchblade stood before them as a baby velociraptor.

Dinobot inspected him with a surge of maternal pride. He looked just like her with only a few minor differences. Just like his protoform, his raptor skin was a dark royal blue with black stripes running down his back, legs and tail, while his underbelly was a creamy grayish white. His eyes were bright red and bisected by a horizontal black pupil. A small spray of feathers ran down the back of his head with matching tufts of feathers on either one of his elbows. In raptor form, his shoulders only came up to Dinobot's knees.

"Hey, hey! He did it!" Rattrap crowed. "Good job, Switch! Dat's mah boy!"

The tiny raptor squeaked in reply and tried to move towards his father. His coordination, however, was off and Switchblade gracelessly tumbled forward onto his face.

"Looks like his motor skills aren't any better in beast-mode than as a protoform," Rhinox noted.

Dinobot dipped her head and prodded her son back up onto his feet with her muzzle. "It's not an issue of motor skills so much as having to relearn how to balance," she defended with a dark glare at Rhinox. Switchblade wobbly found his feet. "In beast-mode our weight is distributed differently than when we walk upright. He needs to learn to use his tail to counterbalance the front half of his body."

After several minutes of Dinobot awkwardly supporting him, the baby raptor finally seemed to find his center of balance. Dinobot slowly backed away, allowing Switch to stand on his own. The sparkling took several hesitant steps and then, as if realizing he'd done so on his own, grew more confident and pounced at his father's feet, squeaking playfully.

"Looks like he figured it out," Rattrap chuckled. He stooped down and patted the top of his son's head. Switch chirruped happily. "Think he'd like ta go outside fer a lil' bit?"

"I suppose that's a possibility now," Dinobot murmured. Despite wanting Switch to be formatted with a beast-mode, that didn't necessarily mean she wanted to let him venture outside the ship just yet. He was still very young and primitive Earth was a dangerous place. Nonetheless, the warrioress refused to let herself become a stereotypical overprotective maternal unit that was too afraid to even let her progeny out of her sight. The universe was too harsh a place to coddle a sparkling - even one as young as Switch - for too long. "As long as he stays within sight of the ship I'll allow him outside for a short while."

"Awesome," Rattrap grinned. He was just about to call out a command and transform to beast-mode himself when he was abruptly stopped by Rhinox slapping a giant hand down onto his shoulder.

"I don't think so," the engineer said with a stern look. "Did you forget that you're scheduled for monitor duty in two klicks?"

"Aw, com'on!" Rattrap whined. "It'll only be fer a few minutes. I promise I'll come right back in."

Both Rhinox and Dinobot gave him unconvinced looks.

"You have a job to do here, Vermin," the warrioress said. "Switchblade and I will be fine without your presence."

Rattrap frowned and sulkily turned towards the computer stations on the other side of the bridge. "Fine," he muttered and trudged away. Dinobot could feel his disappointment through their bond. He'd been looking forward to taking their son outside for the first time and skipping out on monitor duty in the process. The warrioress felt no sympathy for her sparkmate's failed attempt at dereliction of duty.

"Come, Switch," Dinobot called and headed towards one of the lifts. The baby raptor squeaked and hurried after her in his new hopping gait.

"Don't keep him out there too long," Rhinox called after Dinobot. "He still needs time to fully get used to his armor. You don't want to throw too much at him too soon and overwhelm his systems."

"I am more than aware of how to take care of my son," the warrioress growled as she folded herself into the lift. Switchblade hopped in after her, excited for this new adventure.

The lift doors hissed shut and the two began their descent. When the doors opened again a minute later, a warm breeze blew into the lift, ruffling the feathers on Switchblade's head. The sparkling chirped in delight at the strange sensation.

"Stay near me," Dinobot cautioned as she stepped off the lift. The baby raptor scampered after her, hopping around her feet in excitement. Now that he'd figured out how to properly balance his motor skills had greatly improved. Dinobot supposed it was because of his inherent beast-instincts. Velociraptors had been able to stand and move around by themselves almost immediately after hatching. Leading the sparkling out from under the ship's belly, Switchblade was given his first look of the outside world.

A clear blue sky stretched out overhead in all four directions. Summer had passed, but the air was still balmy and warm. Dinobot suspected cooler temperatures were still several weeks away. A fresh breeze drifted across the land, rustling the scrub grass growing around the ship.

Switchblade chirruped from his mother's side.

"This is planet Earth," the warrioress explained as she stared across the peaceful landscape. "This is our home, at least until we return to Cybertron."

From a patch of tall scrub grass to the two raptor's left came a soft rustle. Dinobot glanced towards it just as a bright green beetle wandered out from the vegetation. Switchblade chirped and curiously stalked closer. Bending down, he nudged the insect with the tip of his nose. The beetle drew back and fluttered its wings the same way it would try to frighten off a potential predator. The sparkling, however, was only more enticed by the bug's angry clicking and nudged it again with his nose.

Dinobot passively watched as he hopped and danced around the insect as it tried to hurry back towards the sheltering cover of grass.

"Switchblade, enough," she called just as the baby raptor was about to follow its new plaything into the brush.

The sparkling warbled in disappointment, but obediently scampered back to his mother's side.

"You must take care not to venture too far away from me," the warrioress cautioned even though she knew her son was too young to understand almost everything she said. "This planet is wrought with danger. Not to mention we are in the midst of a war that may just decide the fate of our entire race. You are arguably still too young for me to have even considered your father's proposal to let you off-ship, but I will not keep you caged onboard like a prisoner in a jail with no bars. I will not allow fear to be instilled in you at such an early age."

Dinobot might have gone on, but anything else she might have said was interrupted by the appearance of a bright object streaking across the sky only several dozen miles above them to the east. A line of fiery orange afterburn trailed behind it like the ice-tail of a comet. The sound of the air bending and cracking in the wake of the fiery object boomed like thunder on the horizon. Dinobot could actually feel the thump of it in her chest.

Beside her, Switchblade squeaked in fear and ducked under Dinobot's belly, pressing himself tight against his mother's leg. Dinobot was too stunned to do anything more than stare after the object as it shrunk into the distance, leaving only a wispy trail of white smoke across the sky in its wake.

_A stasis pod?_ the warrioress wondered. _No, it was too big for a stasis pod. It almost looked like a small spacecraft. Like a planet-hopper…_

An odd tingling sensation formed in the pit of Dinobot's fuel tank. The feeling was not foreboding or apprehensive, but something more reminiscent of… anticipation?

With a quick command, the warrioress transformed to her bipedal form and scooped her frightened son up into her arms. The sparkling huddled against her breastplate, even going so far as to tuck his head under his mother's chin where he seemed to feel the most safe.

Dinobot continued to stare in the direction the spaceship had just disappeared, wondering if the person (or persons) it contained were friend or foe…

* * *

Waves sluiced back and forth against the sandy beach like the heartbeat of the living ocean. The muffled cries of gull drifted on the salty breeze, nostalgic and sad. On the sands of the secluded beach a spacecraft lay moored in the sand several dozen paces above the tide line. It was small; able to hold no more than two passengers at a time. Its sides were singed and charred completely black in some places from its entry through the planet's atmosphere. Its engines pinged with the sound of cooling metal.

The hatch of the planet-hopper popped open and a figure emerged, groaning with relief as he dropped down onto the sandy ground and stretched his arms up over his head.

"Oh, Primus, that was a long trip," he moaned as his spinal column made a series of painful sounding pops. "That's the last time I agree to travel in a planet-hopper with you for long distances." There was no answer from inside the spacecraft, which didn't seem to faze the newcomer. Dragging in a deep intake of air, the mech gazed out across the glassy sea towards the horizon. Sunlight danced across the waves at the break line, making the water sparkle as though a layer of finely ground diamond dust coated its undulating surface. The bot stared for a long moment of reflective silence. "I've forgotten how beautiful planet Earth can be…" he murmured to himself under his breath.

There suddenly came a low hum of machinery warming up from inside the spacecraft before two vertical walls of digitized blue light shot out from the top of the ship and began rotating in slow, rhythmic passes across the area.

The figure glanced back towards the ship and heaved an impatient sigh. "Hey, Depthcharge! Hurry up already! I'm not getting any younger out here."

There was a muffled growl from inside the ship. "Be patient," a deep voice rumbled. "I can't help it that I'm not already formatted with a protective alt-form for this planet like you are. It's not like you couldn't stand to learn a lesson in the art of waiting anyway. That impatience of yours could very well get us or someone else killed. This is dangerous territory. You'd do well to take more caution while here."

"Oh please," the first bot rolled his optics. Sunlight reflected brightly off his polished armor and dark blue protomatter. "I know this planet better than you ever will. You might even actually end up asking _me_ for advice about Earth before this mission is over."

"You have schooling in _modern_ Earth culture and history which is next to worthless in this prehistoric timeline."

The scanners blinked offline and the spacecraft's second passenger emerged from the cockpit. Two wing-like appendages framed the mech's teal, blue and gold figure.

"A manta ray," the first mech whistled in approval. "Nice choice. Very intimidating. But not that practical if you ask me. That beast-mode's not going to be much use to you anywhere out of water."

"I didn't ask you for your opinion," the one named Depthcharge growled. His disgruntled mood was physically palpable. "I didn't even want you here in the first place. The only reason you're here is because you were assigned to this mission by General SkyRaze for your familiarity with the planet and Optimus Primal's crew. You probably never would have been assigned with me either if it wasn't for your family's personal ties to bots higher in the chain of command." Abruptly turning his back on the other mech, the manta ray stalked away several paces.

"You know, I bet you'd have a lot more friends if you didn't go around spouting smoke and fire all the time," the first mech suggested. Although it was said in a teasing way, there was an underlying note of dislike for the other in his voice.

The manta ray angrily rounded back on him, his optics burning with fire. "This is exactly why I didn't want to bring you; your attitude is too flippant for this mission. We came here to hunt down Protoform X and kill him, not go vacationing on some primitive planet."

The first mech's features darkened. His optic ridges furrowed together and his lips curled back from his teeth in an angry snarl. His previously laidback body language became threatening and dark. "Don't _ever_ assume you know my state of mind, Depthcharge. I know _exactly_ why we're here. Don't think you're so special because of what happened to you. Your colony wasn't the only place destroyed by Protoform X. I have just as much reason as you do for wanting to stop that timeline from happening again. I lost an entire branch of friends to X's killing spree. I am _not_ going to let him kill my friends again."

Depthcharge seemed mollified by the other's speech and relaxed his offensive stance, slightly. "Just so we're clear on this: I don't want or need any help taking X down. You were only sent here to be my babysitter since those higher in command don't think I can separate my own feelings from the mission. Well, I don't need a babysitter. Especially not in the form of some young Academy graduate whose family connections were the only thing that earned him a place in the Security Department's ranks. So just stay out of my way. Got it, Switchblade?"

The younger mech's optics narrowed, his expression tight. "Listen, dude, while we're here on primitive Earth we hold the exact same rank. You have no command over me. If I want to help you take down Protoform X, then I will. I have just as much claim to his metallic hide as you do. The elders sent both of us here for a reason. So just get off your high horse and get off my back, 'cause you're going to get my help with this whether you like it or not."

Depthcharge's optics narrowed hatefully, but there was nothing he could say to argue with what the other mech had said. Everything Switchblade had said was true.

"Fine," he darkly muttered behind his facemask. "Just as long as you don't forget the rules the elders gave us before we left."

Switchblade snorted, his demeanor once again becoming laidback and joking. "Ah, those weren't really rules. They're really just more like guidelines. And guidelines can always be bent when the situation calls for it."

Depthcharge refused to actually respond, and instead turned away from Switch and walked away, muttering darkly under his breath.

A self-satisfied grin snaked across Switchblade's face as he watched Omicron's ex-head of security stalk away. He always enjoyed getting the older mech's goat like that. Depthcharge was one of the most uptight bot's he'd ever met in the Security Department. He understood the other's dark past better than he cared to admit, but that didn't mean he was going to stand for Depthcharge's rogue avenger attitude without having something smart to say about it. His father had raised him better than that…

Glancing towards the north where he knew the Axalon lay near a waterfall in a ruined heap of unflyable metal, Switchblade took a calming intake. It was good to be back on planet Earth. He just hoped his mother didn't dismember him before he had the chance to prove his identity and explain why he and Depthcharge were there…

_**To be continued?**_

Ok, this is where I really do need feedback from my readers about their opinions. Yes, that really is Dinobot and Rattrap's son Switchblade from the future. How and why he's there with Depthcharge are to be explained later. But first I need to know what people thought of this latest plot twist. Do you like it? Not like it? Were you pretty much indifferent?

If people like the idea of an adult Switchblade entering the plot I will continue this story in a third and final installment for the Masters of Their Fate trilogy. If not, I'll just leave it off here and this last section can be disregarded. If you want to read the next story arc, please add me to your author alert list so you'll know if/when it's published.

Thanks so much for everyone reading this far. This is officially my longest story to date. It was a blast writing!

Signing off,  
LAXgirl


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